


I'm Straight, But...

by Fox_155



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Character, Dorms, Falling In Love, Genderqueer Character, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Mentioned NCT Dream Ensemble, Nerdiness, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Questioning, Smut, Trans Character, catastrophe bi, confident gay meets clueless bi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-12-17 11:22:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 72,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21053564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_155/pseuds/Fox_155
Summary: Xiaojun had big plans for uni: make friends, study, make friends, convince his mum to change his major, make friends, not catch scurvy from malnutrition due to fast food, make friends, build up enough muscle to actually be considered buff, make friends...oh! And find a girlfriend.Nowhere in this plan had been room for 1.85m of buff and adorable Lucas making him suddenly question his sexuality, but here he was...It was probably Guanheng's fault.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of the people and this story isn't by any means an accurate representation of the people by whom it is inspired by.
> 
> Ookamicky commented under my Luyang Wolf story that they ship Xiaocas and I was like – you know what? So do I! Then I read a story on Reddit via Tumblr that just had Xiaojun written all over it and now here we are

#####

If Xiaojun was being honest, the whole moving-out-to-university-thing had seemed a lot more terrifying before it had happened than it actually turned out to be.

Maybe barely 24 hours post-move-out was a little early to tell, but he had not secretly cried because he missed his mum, he had not found his dorm room to be infested with ants/spiders/demons, nor was his roommate the suspect of a murder case. No one had ripped the entire floor from their beds at midnight, for a brutal first-year-inauguration where people would be dumped in cold water, stripped, screamed at, and possible blood sacrifices be made.

Dramas had really made all that seem a lot more likely than it would appear to really be.

If he was being honest, it was even looking quite good so far.

He and his team had made second place during the campus rally, for which they had won tote bags with the university logo. An essential in every student’s collection, or so their very motivated tutor had said (they were 10 Yuan in the university store but the knowledge of what they had gotten them for was what made them valuable).

Though he had not overcome his shyness to talk to anyone in his team, he had at least found a friend in his roommate. Kinda. Were they friends? Xiaojun hoped they were. He had planned to make many friends. They had moved in at the same time – which, coincidentally, had been the moving in time for their year, but whatever – and had amicably divided the room between each other before starting to unpack and decorate their new home.

Easy small talk had sparked from that – or had it been that? Xiaojun wasn’t sure what still qualified for small talk, so it might have been big or at least medium-sized talk. It had started off as a question why his roommate had such a vast collection of boy group posters, which had very quickly escalated into the other announcing the reason to be that he was very gay. Immediately after, he had asked if Xiaojun took issue with that because, if he did, he’d love to have a battle, man on man, outside the dorm.

Xiaojun had politely declined and said he had nothing against anyone, even though he, personally, was totally straight and had just asked out of interest.

Apparently, that was called cishet, so there was that.

He had unpacked all his clothing and the drawers had still closed once filled (with only a little bit of force), he also had hung up the picture of his family’s snakes for decoration without poking himself on the tack and falling into 100-year slumber from which he would have to be rescued by a prince. Which would have been inconvenient, anyway, seeing how he was straight.

His roommate had then announced it was either him or the snake poster, both couldn’t co-exist, so, Xiaojun had taken the snake-photos back down and hung up some of the spare boy group posters the other had offered in replacement. Admittedly, their handsome faces were very pleasant to look at and he could appreciate the other’s efforts.

Xiaojun totally had this adulting thing down!

With the long day of excitement and home-decorating under their belts, they had successfully made Ramen yesterday. Orientation requiring them to walk across the entire campus several times, following their very motivated tutor, had left their legs feeling like jelly. Needless to say, going to the cafeteria had been absolutely impossible.

What had started out as an emergency decision had turned into realising what great chefs they were. The nutritional value of instant noodles surely wasn’t even that far off from whatever dishes might be served there.

There were vegetables in there! It had to be healthy!

Okay, it had been a bit crunchy but Guanheng, his roomie, had said crunchy Ramen was better anyway and Xiaojun had agreed if only not to be the one admitting defeat against the 3-step instructions (the 3rd of which being “enjoy”).

With so many personal wins boosting his ego and his tummy filled with very healthy dinner, Xiaojun had sent his mum a message assuring her he was not going to develop scurvy any time soon. That had been one of the many worries she had voiced upon dropping him off.

Conveniently, he had left out the part where he had only had crunchy Ramen yet. He had a hunch that she might not consider that ‘not developing scurvy’.

Today, after having concluded the ‘informative and fun orientation for all first-years’ with their triumphant tote-bag-win late in the afternoon, he would make the next big and important step into ‘student life at Vision university’, how their very motivated tutor had called it: going out to party and getting drunk.

Obviously, their very motivated tutor had not said it like that and had put emphasis on the part where they got to meet people from other departments and the area. He had also pointed out that drinking wasn’t really part of the whole orientation-days program, to begin with.

It was slightly naïve to try and convince first-year uni students, on the loose at the local party-area for the first time, to stay sober. Xiaojun knew, Guanheng knew, everyone from their team knew, they would get shitfaced come hell or high water.

Their very motivated tutor probably also knew but he seemed to enjoy living in denial. He also wore polo-shirts and chinos, Xiaojun wasn’t sure he was even ‘one of them’ - but he had gotten the job as their tutor. By extension, that left him in charge of a few dorm floors because that came with the job description. It also meant he lived in this… humble abode. Maybe he shouldn’t judge a tutor by his leather boat shoes?

So, yes, things were looking up, things were exciting.

Xiaojun puffed his chest and inspected if his shoulder looked nice and broad, and if his arms showed off the hours at the gym to his satisfaction in the mirror. He had recently upgraded his routine by 2 kg on each repeat – Schwarzenegger was shaking.

“I’m sorry, but you don’t plan to wear that, do you?”

He tore his eyes off his reflection, that, very honestly, looked like the Terminator was going to eat it for breakfast, and they fell on his roommate. Guanheng had his hands on his hips and gave Xiaojun two fully-body-overs. He couldn’t look more judgemental if he tried. Xiaojun felt scared but also confident in his outfit-choice.

He looked cool and buff(-ish in a beanpole kind of way)!

“Uh… yes, I was?”

“Okay. Well. Your decision. I hope you at least have a jacket to go over your tank top or do you deem it warm enough to waltz around like this?” Xiaojun looked himself down. He wore what he always wore, was there anything wrong with his baggy jeans or something?

Well, if he looked at Guanheng, he did feel slightly underdressed. On the other hand, he also had no desire to need scissors to get back out of his clothes, how he assumed Guanheng would. Was that eyeshadow…?

“I have a leather jacket.”

“Of course, you do. Why am I not surprised? Well. Let’s hit the road, shall we? I bet our tutor is early even when he goes to party. I have a suspicion he always comes early,” Guanheng wiggled his eyebrows with a dirty grin.

The poor man didn’t really deserve it, but it was kinda funny. Xiaojun chuckled and shrugged his arms into his very cool greaser jacket before grabbing his wallet and phone.

“Bold to assume Qian Kun goes out unless it’s a Tupperware or maybe a trade-your-post-stamps-party.”

Guanheng did his strange laughter, the one where he sounded like rubber gloves on a tile floor. Xiaojun wondered if Kun was aware everyone was making jokes about him, and if he minded. He might just smile it off with one of his endlessly patient nods.

Maybe, he should not make more fun of him. He was really very motivated and had helped them score the second place and the tote bags…

It was just so easy to find things to pick on.

Especially when he was still in the same polo shirt and chinos, only topped off with, yes, Xiaojun was seeing this right, a varsity jacket that had Vision University’s logo over the back. And his major. Mechanical engineering.

Xiaojun might be judged for his (cool and fashionable) outfit of choice, but even he saw how this was a fashion-nightmare.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the bar their very motivated tutor led them to, was overrun with other orientation groups, easy to recognise by their extremely unfashionable but mandatory nametags.

It wasn’t a joke, their very motivated tutor had stuck a small white label with ‘肖德俊’ onto Xiaojun’s leather jacket and even patted it down twice to make sure it’d stick and Xiaojun wasn’t going to “accidentally” lose it.

It had been the second big humiliation ever since arriving here yesterday and his mum had pressed a huge goodbye kiss onto his cheek.

Seeing how he shared the fate with not only the 14 other guys stuck in his team, but about 400 other first-years, made it a little less bitter.

“Don’t feel too obliged to stick around. Scatter, it’s your free time now. You can leave whenever you want, or you can move to the next bar with me in half an hour if you want to see as many as possible,” Kun announced as if he was setting his personally bred and raised baby-birds free to fly.

“I’m sorry, I don’t plan to be able to recognise him, or anyone else for that matter, anymore in an hour. What do you say, roomie?” Guanheng nudged Xiaojun’s waist, “This place is much too lame for someone like me. I mean, you could stick around if you want, you probably wouldn’t stand out much, or you can join me in search of a better place.”

Xiaojun buffed Guanheng’s shoulder in revenge for the dig, but he glanced around. Most tables were full, they’d have to sit down with someone unfamiliar or, worse, with Kun and the other tutors, who were drinking… was that apple juice?

“Let’s get out of here,” Xiaojun nodded, only to jerk away when Guanheng hooked his arm into his.

“Relax, I’m just going to make sure I won’t lose you. Seems like a real risk to me, people could trample you and I’d never notice. Homosexuality is not transmittable, unlike cooties, which, by the way, we gays are immune to because only girls have it,” Guanheng cackled and Xiaojun rolled his eyes.

“I’m barely shorter than you are. Do you even have any idea where we’re going?” he asked when they stepped right back onto the main street, where they had just come from. While his knowledge of the campus and the different departments’ buildings, as well as student facilities, was now excellent, that didn’t extend to the foreign city in which Vision uni was located.

“Yep. When you sign up for joining the homosexual agenda, you have to agree to spread the word and draw more people in to soon overthrow the government. To ensure the success of our plan, we hold regular meetings. Stop looking like that, it’s a joke.” Xiaojun nodded slowly, “Anyway, I made friends ahead of coming here, to ensure I wasn’t going to be alone in a bigoted hell-hole. I mean, I got lucky with you, but it wasn’t guaranteed. There’s some older students among them and they said this was the place to be. It’s called Liu Suo Dang Ran, or Regular, for short.”

“Wait, but… I’m not gay!” Xiaojun protested. He also had never had gay friends before. Probably due to the overall number of friends p.v.u. (pre vision uni) having been very limited. Xiaojun wasn’t sure whether to be glad, that Guanheng seemed to be the extrovert-friend to find introverts cute and adopt them, because he’d be throwing him in at the deep end and would ensure a circle of friends greater than two, or to run.

“Yes, it’s very obvious, sweety. Don’t worry. Allies are accepted as long as you don’t claim the A in LGBTQA+ stands for you and not for Ace.”

“There was an A in there?” Xiaojun was familiar with the first four letters but now there were three new ones? He felt so uneducated…

“We’re trying to be more inclusive but the term is obviously still lacking, thus the constant push to reclaim queer as a term that’ll fit easier for everyone. Oh! We’re here.”

Guanheng pushed open a door that looked like straight from one of the drug-awareness campaigns, or something out of a horror film, leading to the kidnappers' hideout.

“Are you sure?” Xiaojun eyed the sign, but it did read ‘理所当然’. Maybe, he should have done a more throughout background check on Guanheng. He might have some account on the dark web, selling organs… man, Xiaojun could have at least bought the new iPhone were he the one to offer his kidney there.

Would his mum say she had known this would happen if he became a victim in illegal black market deals gone south?

However, his worries were silenced very quickly when they stepped into a surprisingly well-lit room that looked like a normal bar and not like a meth lab.

What a relief. His mum wouldn’t have been pleased if he had accidentally become a drug dealer and landed in prison.

The music was already turned up a lot louder than it had been at the bar closer to campus and Xiaojun spotted a dancefloor with two poles, but no one had taken it yet. It was only 9pm, after all, the actual ‘cool people’ were probably not even done dressing yet.

Was pole dancing considered cool?

Well, probably only for girls, right? He should have done more research on his! First unknown letters in in abbreviations, now unknown inventory in the bar – he could have come prepared but here he was.

Despite the early hour and the cool people presumably still at home, the tables were already filled well and Xiaojun spotted some of the familiar white name tags on several of the guests. It further reassured him he hadn’t just walked into some mafia HQ and would never see his kidneys and passport again – and also that he wasn’t the only one looking like the lame first year he was.

“I think it’s them over there, come on, you’re my emotional support-roomie here,” Guanheng tightened his gab on Xiaojun’s arm and started dragging him along. Xiaojun tried to simultaneously understand how HE had ended up in the emotional support role and guess who would be a table of LGBT+++ people.

He failed to answer in both cases.

The first issue was his own heart in his throat, which also resulted in immediate memory loss to the point that he would have to check his tag to remember what his parents had called him. Secondly, unlike what the fundamentalists wanted them to believe, the LGBT+++ looked like everyone else and he only found out who they were when Guanheng stopped and they paused their talk to look up at them.

Xiaojun counted three guys and four girls. More than all his friends during high, middle, and primary school combined.

The instinct to turn and bolt was strong, but he reminded himself that he wanted to adult and network and be overall less of a hermit. He had also planned for a girlfriend since there had been a terrible lack in those up to this point, but this might not be the place to start looking.

Plus, he’d have to talk to strangers to find one, which… yeah, he was fine just being single, really.

“Hi! I’m Guanheng!” his roomie announced and the faces became warm and welcoming.

“Of course, our third baby-chick has arrived!” Someone broke the silence and immediately, chairs were shuffled around and somehow, Xiaojun found himself seated without anyone asking even a single question of why he was here.

To his right was Guanheng, to his left one of the other guys. The white sticker on his leather jacket read ‘Lucas’. While his name sounded a lot more swag and cool, he at least shared Xiaojun’s choice of clothing – until the waistline. It was very reassuring to see someone share his previously judged fashion. He would point that out to Guanheng later.

He glanced around to try and commit the faces to memory, in case he’d ever seen them again.

“Is that your boyfriend?” It seemed like people did actually care if they invited mass-murderers to their table or not. One of the girls had asked - no name sticker to help Xiaojun out, but he wouldn’t have been able to read it from the distance without his glasses on anyway.

“Right, this is Xiaojun, he identifies as straight and a fashion terrorist. He’s my roomie and I didn’t want to see him stuck with our very motivated tutor,” Guanheng put a hand on Xiaojun’s shoulder and the group nodded in understanding.

“Who’s your tutor?” Another girl asked. Her hair was bleached and while it was quite orange on the lower half, she was somehow able to effortlessly pull it off because she was so pretty, “only people really desperate for credit or upstanding enough to voluntarily deal with freshmen out of the goodness of their hearts do that job. From your description, I’m guessing you have a goodie two shoes?”

Xiaojun glanced over at Lucas, unsure whether or not to dare and relax. People might actually accidentally look past him when he sat next to someone of his build. Even sitting down, it was clear Lucas was tall. To make matters worse, he filled his jacket out so much better than Xiaojun. Jealousy tugged in his gut. If only genetics had at least blessed him with more than 165 cm body-height… Lucas looked really cool and he had a handsome face to top it off.

Life really wasn’t fair sometimes.

“Definitely a role model student, ours, his name’s Qian Kun,” Guanheng announced to the curious audience.

One of the girls broke into uncontrollable laughter, her hair flying when she threw her head back. Xiaojun realised there were sparkling strands in it. He hadn’t known that was possible until now. Technology was truly fascinating. Was that acceptable for guys to wear?

Probably not… bummer.

“Please excuse her, she and Kun have a... “ the guy next to her pursed his lips, seemingly looking for words, “Rivalry… going on.”

“Well, in that case, there shall be no doubt about it, we need the booze and we need lots of it.” the girl with the bleached hair slammed a hand on the table, making the empty glasses rattle, and Xiaojun jerked in his place so badly, he bumped into Lucas’s arm.

Immediately he had a hand on his back like to steady him.

“Are you okay, man?” Lucas smiled down at him and Xiaojun nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly. Wow, this was just embarrassing, way to make a fool of himself. On a side note, Lucas definitely had very nice arms, firm and almost hard, from what he had felt when he had bumped into him. Not like Xiaojun generally analysed other people and their muscle mass, but ever since he had started to hit the gym and educated himself, he had become more aware of it.

He also had a very gorgeous smile and white teeth, but that was neither here nor there.

“Sure, just a bit surprised.”

The girl with the sparkle had calmed down to return to being a functioning human and carefully patted away tears from her smokey eyes, “God, you need so much alcohol to handle that man, believe me, I speak from experience. Haaaa, I’m not even surprised he’d volunteer for something so lame, it’s so typical for him.”

The guy, who had announced their difficult relationship, had a face on like he didn’t believe her for a single second but saw right through her bullshit. Xiaojun didn’t, so he decided not to pry where he didn’t belong.

Other people had no such qualms.

“So, he’s your ex or something?” The only guy who hadn’t spoken yet chipped in, leaning onto the table.

There was a moment of silence. It stretched on like chewing gum and the air between them became as thick as it, too, tension building up with every second ticking by during which no one spoke, no one even moved.

Xiaojun had never been in a circle where exes might be discussed because no one had had any exes to discuss, but even he realised this had been a very bold statement.

The girl with the sparkle leaned towards the guy, who also had the name tag so he might be the third “baby-chick”, and inspected him for a moment. Xiaojun waited while trying to read his nametag, but being sabotaged by myopia, if she was going to rip his head off.

Another second passed, and another, and nothing happened, Xiaojun might not even have been breathing because the situation felt like it required perfect silence (other than the loud music and other guests laughing in the background, of course).

Then, her scowl fell and she squeezed his cheek, which he unsuccessfully tried to escape.

“You have balls, I like you, I shall adopt you and teach you everything I know. Now, where’s the soju?”

“Wow, I thought she was going to make Beijing duck from Yangyang,” Lucas whispered and Xiaojun internally puzzled the name to the guy in question, hoping to not immediately forget about it again – because unlike for Lucas and his nametag right in front of Xiaojun’s nose, he’d not get the same cheat-sheet for him.

“Same, I still have goosebumps,” Guanheng agreed from his other side and showed off his arm which, indeed, had the typical prickly skin. Xiaojun remembered breathing was required for him to continue aerobic metabolism and not faint, so, he took a deep gasp.

“Right, I haven’t introduced myself. I mean, I already kinda know you, but nice to meet you, officially, Guanheng. And you’re Xiaojun? I’m Yukhei, by the way. Or Xuxi. Or Lucas. I also react to handsome, gorgeous, and sexy,” Yukhei/Xuxi/Lucas grinned widely and Xiaojun had already forgotten at least five out of six names, leaving only the ‘sexy’ option or reading the life-saving tag.

Well, he wasn’t wrong, right? If Xiaojun was gay, which he totally wasn’t, he’d probably have his heart race and palms grow sweaty. Well, his heart was racing and his palms were sweaty because he was too handsome for Xiaojun’s brain to handle and that deep, velvet voice…

Too bad he was straight, but he’d surely become a good friend!

“Nice to meet you,” Xiaojun clapped his hand against sexy’s and their shoulder-bump was a bit too rough for his liking but it was probably hard to contain all that muscle and strength.

“I’m Chengxiao, I’m a second year, so if you have any questions, just ask me. I know it’s a lot at first,” the girl next to sexy Lucas introduced herself. She smiled and her eyes turned up. Wow, she was really pretty, too!

They were interrupted by the soju arriving and when everyone started to immediately pour it and pass the glasses around, Xiaojun started to think that he might be the only one who hadn’t yet tasted alcohol before. His mum was always very worried.

Obviously, he wasn’t going to say that and make himself look lame.

Instead, he clicked his glass together with the others and threw the shot back how he had seen other people do before. It burnt on his tongue and he couldn’t hold a full-body shiver. At the very least, he didn’t choke on it how the bleach-blonde did. Small blessings.

Her seat-neighbour came to her rescue while Guanheng laughed and patted his shoulder.

“Too hard for your taste?”

“It’s okay.” Xiaojun shook his head.

“Well, worry not, baby-chicks, they serve cocktails here,” the sparkle-girl yelled over the table and the guy next to her, the one to have announced her and Kun’s questionable relationship, pushed her back into her chair.

It looked like he was very used to containing her, but also like he’d rather be anywhere else, including Venus during a sun-storm.

“Sweet. With cocktails, you don’t even realise you’re wasted until you try to stand up,” Lucas grinned.

“Exactly, that’s the spirit. I’m sorry, the adoptee spot has already been taken, Xuxi, but I approve of the mindset. Maybe Sichengie will take you?”

“You’re confusing me with a person that voluntarily interacts with humans or leaves the house,” the guy next to her, presumably Sicheng(ie), said with a straight face. That just confirmed what Xiaojun had already been thinking, but it was also kinda cool. Well. Sicheng really looked like a cool guy with his elfish face and calm aura in the mess that was their table.

Why were there so many good-looking men and women here? Xiaojun was getting stressed.

“Let’s stop playing favourites here, we love all our new baby-queers equally here, just ignore Eleven, she’s slightly off the hook, as per usual.” the bleach-blonde announced, “and I said we opt for beer because cocktails are nasty as fuck!”

Half of the table booed loudly and Xiaojun wasn’t sure which universe he had gotten trapped in, but he was enjoying himself even though it was extremely confusing.

Speaking of…

“Your name is Eleven?” he blinked at sparkle-girl, “Like the girl from Stranger Things? Or like the number?”

“Like the convenience store, of course,” she returned.

“Oh, okay.” Xiaojun nodded. That was unusual, but whatever, it wasn’t his place to judge, right?

“She’s joking,” Sicheng announced, looking like it wasn’t the first time this had happened.

“Aw, he’s so cute, did you really believe me?” the girl leaned over the table. The lavish sleeves of her blouse pooled on the top, making the spider-pattern even more obvious, like tons of the little eight-legged-creatures crawling over the wood towards Xiaojun. God, spiders were adorable! He wished he could have brought Cinderella, his favourite tarantula. She could have been his emotional support pet.

Luckily, he still had his emotional support roomie!

“Hey, no bullying of my tiny friend, I still need him!” Guanheng wrapped an arm around Xiaojun, who felt only mildly reassured. Eleven might be the scariest person at the table despite her button nose and perfectly pale skin suggesting royal descent.

“I mean it, he’s cute. You’re cute. I bet you never drank a cocktail before. Do you think you can do it without having to say no-homo right after? I’ll buy you a Cosmopolitan, believe me, they’re so good you’ll sell your soul to capitalism to have more,” the offer sounded intriguing, especially since Xiaojun had zero clue about what a Cosmopolitan might be.

“I don’t care. I mean, I’m straight, I don’t have to prove it to anyone, right?” he laughed nervously. Was this a test? Would he be sacrificed on this very table in case he failed? He hadn’t even kissed anyone non-family yet!

“Aw, nooo, fuckboi on the outside but cinnamon roll inside.” She cooed before leaning back to yell an order to the waitress. To match the creepy blouse, there was a huge arachnid on the buckle of the belt around her waist. Would she tell him where she had gotten that from?

The blonde pushed her hand over Eleven’s mouth and altered the order, adding copious amounts of beer. Xiaojun wasn’t sure she realised there was only nine of them?

“I don’t know who’s supposed to drink all that.” Chengxiao sighed softly, looking like this wasn’t the first time the blonde had ordered enough to get a whole dorm building drunk.

“Well, I agree on starting the new year with a bang! It’s my last, after all,” the girl next to Chengxiao cheerfully clapped her hands.

“If they accept your thesis this time, we don’t have confirmation of that quite yet,” Sicheng pointed out.

The table quickly picked up on the topic, starting to discuss the workload and how realistic it was to finish within the expected time or if you needed the extra year, regardless of how hard you tried. It was interesting. So far, their very motivated tutor and the professors, that had spoken during the welcome ceremony yesterday, had only offered the official versions where everything was unicorns and rainbows 24/7.

No one downright scared him, but Xiaojun felt a little sobered but also like it’d be much less shameful if he ended up struggling with something.

The first part of the order arrived and Xiaojun was now 100% sure they were all going to be admitted with alcohol poisoning from just beer alone.

Well, not him, because it tasted about as good as Xiaojun had expected – which was not at all.

“Hey, so,” he jerked around to Lucas when he realised he was talking to him. Lucas hesitated for a moment, then chuckled and Xiaojun eyed him in confusion. It didn’t quite fit for someone like him to get somewhat… shy? Was this shiness?

Xiaojun really needed more friends to know how to read people better. This was just sad.

Shy or not, it looked surprisingly cute, as far as people who rudely grew past 1.80m would be cute.

“I was just wondering what your major is? Since I already kinda know everyone else on this table but you came as a pleasant surprise.”

Pleasant? Xiaojun could already feel himself flushing. Had he pointed out too many handsome men and beautiful women made him stressed?

“Well, it’s biology for now because of my parents. I wanted to go for archaeology but they say it’s too unreliable a field to work in and I compromised by choosing biology and not engineering, how they wanted me to, because I at least get to learn about genetics and things like that. I find that super interesting. What about you?”

Lucas had started nodding with wide eyes and Xiaojun felt weirdly encouraged and validated by a near-perfect stranger he had already forgotten 60% of the names of.

“I can’t believe you’d want to go into archaeology! Me, too!”

“Wait, really?” Xiaojun had never met anyone sharing the passion. The stress of social interaction topped off with extra stress of social interaction with good-looking people lifted and left him giddy and excited for entirely different reasons.

“Yes! I’m in geology now because of my dad, but I’m so going to change it the moment I get the chance to. Biology is a great idea, too. It helps you understand the science behind carbo-dating or if you find fossils you already have the time-periods down, right? Everything evolutionary would be helpful for older findings. Are you more region orientated, time, theme…?”

Xiaojun could barely hold himself back from just word-vomiting. So far, online platforms had been his only outlet. Those, and his mum until she dozed off and it got no-fun anymore.

“I’m not so much fixed on time or region but I prefer fossils and leftovers of prehistoric forms of life. I find them more interesting than buildings and inorganic substances. Homo sapiens in all forms are great, too, but the older the more fascinating, in my opinion,” Xiaojun wasn’t sure everything was comprehensible and he might be slipping into his dialect, but Lucas nodded so much his hair flopped around on his head.

“Super fascinating, stuff like following the path of evolution or… well… dinosaurs?”

Xiaojun’s eyes widened on their own accord and he found himself nodding just as wildly as Lucas just had.

Dinosaurs were perceived as super lame once you were older than about eight years.

Not to Xiaojun. They were full of mysteries and unanswered questions, so much fascination, linked to these gigantic reptiles that had once roamed the earth.

“Overall the higher saturation of oxygen allowing for bigger lifeforms, including gigantic forests, that’s the craziest stuff ever!” He barely even dared to hope to find more common interest. If they’d just talk about different reptiles for the rest of the evening, Xiaojun knew he’d be the happiest first-year anyone had ever seen.

And he was quite sure their very motivated tutor had been an extremely happy first-yea.

He wasn’t let down, it just became better with Lucas’ answer:

“Yes, these concepts of Megalodons? I mean, it’d make marine biology interesting, too, but I’m simultaneously terrified of what lurks in the depths of the ocean. It could be anything, for all we know there could be mermaids down there,” Xiaojun couldn’t believe his ears.

Yes!

Everything yes!

“Guys, hate to interrupt you being cute nerds, but we were here to get drunk,” Chengxiao pushed two glasses with tiny fruit-skewers in front of them. Xiaojun eyed the content in mild worry. It was so bright pink, it might be fluorescent.

“Ladies, gents, gendernonconfirming, let’s hear it for the beginning of another year of becoming smarter and getting into arguments with your professors!” the blonde rose her beer off the table and a bit of it splashed over the rim and down her hand. Eleven screeched and scooted into Sicheng to get away from the mess while the blonde licked it off her hand.

“Have a napkin, Meiqi,” the announced eldest handed papers over and Meiqi cleaned about 30% of the mess.

“Before that, you worded it beautifully. To a great year, cheers!”

With the eldest’s words, everyone clinked their glasses together, which resulted in Yangyang’s beer spilling, just how Meiqi’s previously had, and some of it landing in Sicheng’s cocktail. His poker face didn’t falter for a second when he took the entire concoction in one shot.

Impressive.

Xiaojun carefully tried the tiniest bit of his _cosmopolitan_ while more of the others emptied half of theirs in one go.

“How is it, straight boy?” Eleven threw her long locks over her shoulder and the tinsel strands sparkled. It was really cute…

“Good,” Xiaojun found himself too self-conscious to add more but it was really good, a lot easier to drink than the soju, that had burnt on his tongue, or the beer, that had tasted a bit too much of old cellar and stale water. It was just on the line of too sweet, with the alcohol noticeable without overpowering it.

“I plead for a new nickname. I’m a straight boy, too, I don’t want to be mixed up!” Yangyang announced. Xiaojun picked the fruits from his cocktail and inspected them. They looked fresh. Wow, this had to be such a healthy drink if he ate these!

“Agreed, reducing people to their sexuality is so 2012,” Meiqi nodded.

Eleven sighed deeply and dumped her fruits in Sicheng’s empty cocktail glass before downing the rest of it in one go.

“Criticism understood and accepted. I’m sorry. I’m not in my creative zone yet, I need about five more of these.”

Xiaojun munched on the pineapple and wondered what else she might be able to come up with for him, once she had had those cocktails.

He had already been scared, but the idea of drunk Eleven? The only hope was, that Sicheng knew how to deal with her.

Guanheng was involved in a conversation over where he had gotten his eyeshadow from - apparently, it originated from a brand called Beverly Hills for reasons far past Xiaojun’s understanding – and Xiaojun realised there had been depressingly little complimentary fruit in his cocktail and he was only left with the wooden toothpick now.

“Hey, so, what do you think of the Jurassic Park franchise?” Lucas suddenly asked from his left and Xiaojun bit down on the pick in hopes of absorbing every last fruit molecule before turning.

A small blush started spreading over Lucas’ cheeks, probably from him having emptied his cocktail much too quickly and moving on to beer from there.

“Well, it’s entertaining for sure if you ignore the inaccuracies and that they just made up a whole lot so they could make it work. I like them, I also like Mercedes, so I’ve got both going for me in the newer instalments,” Xiaojun felt an easy smile. Now that he knew Lucas shared the interest, he was a lot less intimidated by his face and height and shoulder-width. He was easy to talk to!

“Yeah, you really have to switch off the scientist part of your brain,” Lucas tapped his head like he had a physical switch there and Xiaojun chuckled at the idea that he actually did, “I like cars, too, and Chris Pratt. Too bad, he’s part of a super homophobic church now, which meant I had to stop stanning. Sad times, but that’s a hard no.”

“He is? I didn’t even know he was part of a church,” Xiaojun also didn’t stan anyone, especially not men because he was straight, so there was that.

“Guess you probably don’t surf that part of the internet. I can give you a few twitter accs that do the whole social justice stuff. Anyway, Mercedes?” Lucas leaned a little closer and smirked, showing off the full potential his face had, “Which model would you buy if you had all the money in the world?”

Xiaojun felt himself grow a little hot under the intense stare and took another sip of his Cosmopolitan for mental support.

Was this the first step into alcoholism?

“Well, all the money in the world? Then, I could just go for a Maybach, couldn’t I?”

“Oh!” Lucas raised his eyebrows and nodded, “Interesting, very classy, huh?”

“What would you get?” Xiaojun challenged but he knew he was slowly turning the same colour as his cocktail.

Didn’t really matter, so was Lucas and probably everyone. It was hot in here and they were drinking, it had only partially to do with Lucas being too handsome. As a straight guy, Xiaojun obviously was hardly affected by that, anyway.

Despite minor mental-jumble due to distraction by looks, Xiaojun forgot hardly knew Lucas for more than an hour. Maybe it was the dinosaurs and career plans they shared, topped off with more common interests, that made him so easy to talk to. Or maybe it was due to Lucas apparently having singled him out to focus on. Or maybe he just was someone that naturally made friends with passers-bys on the street.

There was a chance it was just the shared leather jackets, though Xiaojun could only dream to look as much as Schwarzenegger as Lucas did in his.

“GLE Coupé, no doubt. I have it all ready to order if I hit jackpot tomorrow, 400d 4MATIC and red seats, everything.”

“Oh, you know what they say about men with big cars, right?” Xiaojun grinned, bolder than he would have been without the alcohol loosening his mouth a bit.

Lucas’s eyes glinted and he took a swig of his beer before continuing, “You also know what they say about men with big hands, right?” he opened his fingers and Xiaojun had to swallow for a second.

Wait, why did he care about the dick of another guy?

Wow, yeah, totally not interested.

“You should always hold them out the window, so no one will get confused,” what on earth was he even saying? Well, he was sort of curious to see how much Lucas packed now, but…

Oh my god!

Why did Lucas smirk back, what was he even DOING here?

He might have to call his mum to pick him up…

“Should I? Thanks for the tip, but I think I’m not that insecure. You can get a test drive - in the passenger seat, of course, but I might let you choose the music if you have good taste. Who’s your favourite artist?”

“Ah, well... “ Xiaojun, once more, turned to his cocktail for emotional support. He should really make sure to watch some more drug awareness campaigns and keep an eye on obvious symptoms.

“Come on, it can’t be too bad. I’ll go first then. I _love_ NCT Dream, their songs are the best and I shall forever protect them!” Lucas started mimicking some dance and Xiaojun burst into laughter at how bad it was.

Chengxiao had replaced Lucas’s empty beer with another cocktail. It was yellow-orange this time, but it had fruit again and Xiaojun zoomed in on it.

Apparently, it didn’t go unnoticed.

“Here, want it?” Lucas plucked it from the drink and Xiaojun accepted it in surprise.

“Thanks. Okay, well, admittedly I don’t really listen to pop music. My favourite composer is Beethoven and I know that’s kinda mainstream.”

“Isn’t he some old dude who made orchestra music? Believe me, you don’t get any less mainstream than liking that, that’s really unique!” Lucas reassured him.

It was nice not to get mocked for it.

“He wrote symphonies, too, but not only. But yeah, he’s a classical composer, and he’s actually a classical one or maybe just on the brink to romanticism during his late life. It’s often all mixed up, Baroque, Classical, and Romanticism, you know. Okay, this is lame, sorry.”

“It’s really not, don’t be sorry if it interests you. Tell me more, I have no clue about this but I want to learn. I can teach you NCT Dream choreography in return, once someone here decides to hit the dancefloor.”

“Hit the dancefloor?” Xiaojun was really pretty extra sure he didn’t have any business on that.

“I’m sorry, it’s part of the homosexual agenda to have fun. You should drink more if you’re scared,” Lucas laughed and without further ado poured some of his yellow-orange drink into the leftover Cosmopolitan.

It tasted better than one might assume.

I also probably had way too much alcohol for someone of Xiaojun’s build and drinking experience.

To make matters worse, he lost the overview of what he had drunk and what he hadn’t. He finished ranting about Beethoven only to listen to Lucas going off about an NCT Dream member named Renjun, whom he apparently had gone to primary school with and who had been his first crush and thus would forever have his unconditional support. The reasoning had been a little confusing but Xiaojun had nodded and Lucas had seemed satisfied with that.

As the evening progressed, Xiaojun had ended up talking to Chengxiao, who studied physics and had guaranteed he was going to get lost, which was something to look forward to, Yangyang, who had asked to have the brand of his cologne, and Sicheng, who made him drink water after a lot of whining on Xiaojun’s side.

Meiqi and Eleven were the ones to open the dancefloor, which really didn’t surprise Xiaojun.

He tried to stay back with Sicheng and Chengxiao. He didn’t want to make an ass of himself, which apparently wasn’t a worry shared.

Guanheng and Eleven didn’t even need an invitation to start twirling around the pole. Xiaojun very much wondered where his roommate had learnt that and if it was time to leave because his mum had said it was important not to go down the wrong path.

Was this the wrong path? It didn’t feel like it, but it had been the same when Xiaojun had stolen the chewing gum from the store at 6 and that had been wrong, how he had later found out painfully when his mum had dragged him back to pay for it and apologise.

“Are you having fun?” Sicheng asked. Xiaojun tried to straighten up from slouching over the table and watching people dance but failed. Whatever.

Sicheng seemed way too sober for someone who had drunk more than all of them combined. Maybe it was the water? Wow, the room was kind of spinning, wow, wait, was Xiaojun swaying? He might be… what was reality even?

“Yeah. Thanks for letting me join,” Xiaojun nodded but it was a bad idea because now he almost topped off his chair were it not for it having a backrest to fall against.

"Sure. It's nice to have safe spaces but you weren't annoying. Eleven was just testing you, see if you'd be and ruin the vibe. I think you can come back, in the future," Sicheng's smile was quite angelic and Xiaojun felt like he had gotten some stamp of approval. That was great, he was in the handsome fairy-guy’s good graces, wow, he really was so dreamy, too, differently from Lucas but still, "I think people want you on the dancefloor." Sicheng nodded the direction and Xiaojun turned to see Guanheng and Lucas waving wildly.

"Uh… I don't know…"

"Sometimes, it's better to not think. Everyone is so drunk, no one will realise you're terrible – or remember."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even after having done it a few times, I'm still very nervous and insecure about adding non-cis people. If you notice any inaccuracies or issues of any nature, pleeeease tell me ;;;

The first thing Xiaojun realised when he slowly came to it, was that he felt sick.

Like… really sick.

He scrambled out of his bed and found his way into the tiny en suite bathroom, where he proceeded to empty his stomach.

Guanheng found him there two hours later. He took photos and laughed, but Xiaojun couldn't blame him. Only the laughter was way too loud for his poor ears right now.

"We need a hangover breakfast. I'm so hungry, I could eat a whole bull."

Xiaojun grumbled something.

How was Guanheng so unaffected? Life was unfair.

An hour later, Xiaojun was in a tracksuit in the cafeteria, two Aspirins in his system making him somewhat functional, and a huge breakfast between him and his roommate.

"Where are all these numbers from?" He scrolled through the newly acquired contacts on his phone. Memories past hitting the dancefloor were blurry at best. He definitely remembered Lucas twirling him around, but what else had happened?

"Those names, oh my god. You were so plastered!" Guanheng cackled and snatched the device from him to laugh even louder.

The noise was barely bearable, but his criticism was understandable. Xiaojun had seen numbers between seemingly random Hanzi.

"I have doubts any of them are the actual numbers of the people they might belong to,” genuine sadness bled into Xiaojun’s voice. Bad life decision or not, he had had a blast and had somewhat hoped to at least have made a friend in Lucas…

"Yeah, I share that suspicion. I can give you the right ones if you want. I'd imagine you'd especially want Xuxi's number, to nerd off about dinosaurs and layers of earth, and whatever else you were discussing, like hand size," Guanheng wiggled his eyebrows. Great, now Xiaojun was thinking about dicks again, this was so inconvenient right now.

"Yeah, that'd be kinda cool. I mean, he was really nice. Not like I care about any of that, I mean, I’m obviously straight, but yeah."

Guanheng smirked and Xiaojun handed over his phone to have him correct last night's messy entries.

"Your friends are really great, I think I missed to tell you or I just don't remember. Thank you for taking me and showing me around. I'm always awkward with strangers but I wanted to make more friends. I feel like this was a good start. Even though I definitely won't drink like this ever again."

"Aw, thanks. I loved to help you out. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't felt like you deserved it and would appreciate it. I'll remind you about the drinking next time you do it."

Xiaojun sighed and guessed it was what people always said in TV shows, only to hit the bottle again the next given chance.

"We should give each other massages after this. It'll help your headache and my anxiety over walking into a class full of potential homophobes with my rainbow t-shirt tomorrow."

Xiaojun nodded despite never having given anyone a massage. Wasn't that a girl thing? Maybe not. Or maybe it was acceptable for gay men, too, and by extention, Xiaojun was now granted the privilege? Whatever the case, it sounded like a good idea. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

"You could not wear the rainbow t-shirt if it gives you anxiety?" Xiaojun suggested. Seemed like an easy solution.

"Yeah, but I want to scare them off. I know, I know, why am I making a fuss. I just can't help it. I don't want to hide but really proudly show my identity off, now that I'm finally in uni. But I'm terrified. I just need to take my mind off it and remember my identity is valid and stuff. So. Massages?"

"Yeah, sure."

It turned out massaging was harder than expected but Guanheng was a good teacher. He might also be happy to get twice as much time out of it because Xiaojun was struggling, but that was just a suspicion.

The first week of actual classes was spent with Xiaojun getting lost in the science building a total of ten times despite Chengxiao's very helpful instructions and Xiaojun ditching his resolution to not drink anymore during the pub crawl his year of bio and chem first-years did, in hopes of finding friends. It resulted in deep regrets the following morning when he had classes at 8 and no new friends because he hadn’t talked to anyone but texted Xuxi and Chengxiao while nursing his awful beer. Cocktails hadn't been available which made the bar flop in Xiaojun's books. That led him to the best part of the week: the extremely insightful texting with Xuxi, which came with 147 screenshots of articles on mainly dinosaurs and birds, 50+ YouTube links, and 6 new Twitter accounts to follow.

But even that wasn’t enough to make uni any less exhausting and slightly intimidating. At least no professor had screamed at or humiliated him in front of the class yet, none of his classmates had ties to the mafia, and no supervillain had trashed the building seeking revenge.

Adulting was going well but it was tiring.

"Hey, Guanheng's roomie!" Xiaojun was done and over with the world on this very gloomy Friday evening but he looked up from the grey linoleum floor of the cafeteria to find a familiar girl waving her hands. Today, there was no tinsel in her hair and no spiders all over her clothes. Instead, she was in oversized grey and light browns with soft makeup instead of smokey eyes.

Xiaojun looked around, but there was no one else around she could have talked to. Guanheng also didn't have any other roomie to Xiaojun's knowledge.. And she was alone on her table… was he supposed to sit down with her?

Would she eat him?

"Come, come, don't sit alone, that's so lonely. Or do you have someone to sit with?"

Xiaojun had planned to inhale his dinner and leave, he didn't necessarily need company for that. On the other hand, it would indeed be less lonely if he sat down with her. Also, he still wanted to make many friends and that, unfortunately, required talking to people.

That he was just a little (and by little he meant absolutely) terrified to talk back to her and at the same time eager to make her like him because she was kind of cool and also really pretty, made the decision a lot easier.

The chair scraped over the floor and Xiaojun sat down on its edge, ready to run anytime.

"Hey, sorry, I'm really terrible with names. It was Xiao…?"

"Xiaojun."

"Right. Sorry. How did your first week go? How's your very motivated tutor? Did you get lost in the science building? Are you considering to drop out yet or still going strong?"

Xiaojun was a bit surprised she'd ask and be this concerned but he appreciated it. Maybe, what he had seen so far was just how she behaved in a setting like a bar, not her regular personality. It fit the cute vibes her outfit gave.

"Well, I got lost a few times, but I never got locked in, I always found my way out before that, which is good. I did consider dropping out three times already. Guess that's normal. And Kun? I haven't really seen him. He said we could come to him with any questions but those I had weren't the ones he's responsible for."

The situation between her and Kun was still puzzling to Xiaojun, but it was quite obvious something had to be going on.

Especially when Eleven nodded and sighed.

"Sorry, I'm not normally this lame,” she smiled and leaned back to take a sip of her water.

"I really think lame is the last word I'd use to describe you!" Xiaojun softly admitted. Even just sharing her table felt like it made him cooler by 200% automatically.

"You're the sweetest. Oh, Yangyang over here!"

Xiaojun glanced over his shoulder and saw the other first-year march their direction.

"Hey, I got us the lemonade. Sorry, Xiaojun, I didn't know you'd be around or I would have gotten you some as well." Yangyang looked so deeply regretful as if he had just announced Xiaojun was the only one to go home without winning 1,000 kg of gold.

"That's fine," Xiaojun shrugged. He was already ¼ done power-eating his meal and his bed was calling his name for him to soon lie down in it and pass out.

"Are you sure? I feel bad now." Yangyang muttered and awkwardly half-leaned down instead of sitting.

"Hey, don't, it's just a drink?" Xiaojun really wasn’t here for long talks or bonding activities, he just needed to eat and go home, possibly hope for Eleven's coolness to rub off.

Yangyang nodded but his eyes were a little shiny when he finally sat down.

"Have a bit of sugar, Baby." Eleven lifted one of the glasses up for him and Yangyang obediently sipped.

"Fucking hormones, I've been a mess for two weeks already,” he ruffled his hair and picked up the chopsticks to start digging in while Xiaojun finished his vegetables – his mum wasn’t watching but he knew she’d know by mum-instinct.

"It's okay, let it all out until you feel better,” it was the same Xiaojun’s mum always said, it was so nice to hear. His dad had always said men should be strong and never cry but Xiaojun was more for the approach of expressing feelings and emotions. His mum had always discouraged listening to his dad, but it might have to do with their divorce.

"I yelled at my roommate. I felt so sorry immediately after but it's just not working. I know she hates it as much as I do. It’s so uncomfortable for both of us but I feel like she’s not even trying to respect the boundaries I asked her to. It makes this so much harder. I hate the fucking dorms and I hate the fucking administration who won't let me live in the men's dorms or give me a single. I just want this whole process to be over with," Yangyang shovelled two mouths full of rice at the same time, some of it landing on the tray below him.

Eleven quietly patted his back while he chewed in anger.

The frustration radiating off him was so strong, Xiaojun could feel it. He had no experience and didn't want to impose, but he could try to understand why this was terrible and unfair. It was like if he’d be rooming with a girl, right? That’d be so awkward and difficult!

"Did you read the entire dormitory rulebook? I only know that of my dorm but there they have a rule that allows you to apply for change after two weeks of you first year because of the random roommate situation. The criteria are unbreachable differences that make cohabitation impossible and both parties applying. Sounds like that would help in your situation?" Xiaojun had been raised to read ever contract at least once, twice if possible.

From how Yangyang looked up, he hadn't done the same.

"I didn't consider that, I was stuck on the gender rules and there was no wiggling room there!" some of the rice from his mouth flew over the table, which was kind of gross, but at least Xiaojun felt like he had been helpful, which made up for flying carbs.

"Ew, gender rules, I'm getting hives. We're reading your lease right after you finish this, chop-chop! Xiaojun, you're the real MVP,” Eleven smiled his direction.

Xiaojun felt a blush rise to his cheeks and waved this hands.

"You are. If you need help with Xuxi, tell me. I already collected plenty of his weird ideas. You might be able to turn them into a nice date because you'd understand what they're even about,” Yangyang offered.

Xiaojun halted where he had stood up to put his tray away and finally follow the call to his bed.

"Uh… date? Why would I go on a date with him? I don't think he's interested in me. He said something about Chris Pratt. I don't look like Chris Pratt."

Yangyang raised his eyebrows slowly and Eleven leaned forward, tapping long fingernails onto the table.

"Riiiight."

So, that had been weird but Xiaojun was way too tired to even think about how he also was straight so that wouldn't even work if Xuxi liked him.

He returned his dishes and tray, waddled back to his dorm’s building, rode the elevator to floor 4, and collapsed into his bed, barely even stripping his jeans before he was out like a light in a second flat.

"Hey, I thought it had been you when I saw you tower over everyone around you." Xiaojun slapped his hand on Xuxi's back, the leather of his jacket making it sound like he had hit hard enough to hurt. The only thing hurt was his palm, not ready for the impact on iron-hard muscle underneath the clothing.

Xuxi jerked around and immediately broke into a bright grin when he recognised Xiaojun.

"Hey, I didn't expect to see you here and up so early. Didn't you say you were tired yesterday?"

"I fell asleep at eight, I got more than enough shut-eye in, thanks. I'm trying to get ahold of the books our professors put on the reading list."

"You're a real nerd, as expected." Xuxi chuckled and nudged Xiaojun, who shot right back:

"And why are you here, at 9 am on a Saturday, hm?"

Xuxi realised his mistake and laughed louder until the front desk manager hissed a sharp "sh".

His eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights and he whispered an apology before lowering his head and continuing at a much more appropriate volume:

"Got me there. We can be nerdy together then. I didn’t even know you had cute nerd-glasses to go with the look!" Cute glasses? Excuse him, Xiaojun didn’t own cute glasses, he owned very fashionable chic glasses (which he still was too prideful to wear outside of settings that absolutely required him to be able to see).

The compliment put him back into the panic-zone he had been in prior to realising how easy to talk to Xuxi was. Why was he so handsome, it was messing with Xiaojun’s head.

"Okay, I'm offended now and don't want to hang anymore," he huffed like his brain was still operational and not currently freaking out over Xuxi’s overall handsomeness, while they crossed the threshold to enter the miles and miles of shelves holding the wisdom of millions of publications.

"Aw, don't be like that. I'll make up for it by buying you a coffee after. Or are you too nerdy for coffee, do you only drink tea?"

Xiaojun airily chuckled, to avoid disturbing anyone or alerting the librarian that they were not in super-serious study mode here.

"I do drink coffee. Where do you need to go?" The shelves were sorted by fields of study. Geology and biology might be sort of close due to both being natural sciences, but he assumed they'd have to part sooner or later.

"I'll help you first if you sweeten my day by coming with me. I bet it's much more fun and I can get you the books from the higher shelves." Xuxi grinned and Xiaojun narrowed his eyes.

"Hey, I'm barely below average height. Keep it up and you'll have to buy me two coffees."

"I'm sorry, didn't hear you from down there," Xuxi lowered himself and put a hand to his ear shell, inviting Xiaojun to speak again. Xiaojun pinched his earlobe, just above where a silver ring was strung through it.

"Three coffees it is," he hissed and from how Xuxi grinned, one might believe that having to buy more coffees for Xiaojun had been his intention.

Weird.

"I have to find shelf D23 to 28."

"Well, mine are in E13 to 16, so I guess that should be relatively close,” Xuxi sounded adorably cheerful and walked on with a spring in his step that had Xiaojun take two where he made one, "Wait," he suddenly paused, "Do you have a clue how to get there? Or where we are?"

“Who do you take me for, my team came second in the campus rally!” Xiaojun was so happy to put his knowledge to good use. Their very motivated tutor had to be proud of him!

“Yeah, but you got lost in your department’s building, like, ten times this week? I don’t feel like you’re a reliable guide.”

“Fine, see how you’ll find E13 then, I’ll be seeing myself to biology.”

Xuxi giggled and hurried after Xiaojun, which was good because Xiaojun hadn’t planned to really leave him behind.

That would have been so sad. Xiaojun thought they were vibing really well. Xuxi might rival Guanheng in his spot as closest uni friend already. He certainly didn’t text as much with Guanheng. Then again, he did know about Guanheng’s skin exfoliation and shaving routine and Guanheng knew about Xiaojun’s underwear preference so it felt like that was giving his roomie an advantage over everyone else.

Xuxi proved actually helpful two times, in which Xiaojun was spared the humiliation of having to find a step stool. He also wanted to carry Xiaojun's books, which he very firmly turned down. He wasn't some girl to swoon over some muscle power. Okay, yes, he was still deeply enthralled by the circumference of Xuxi’s arms, but that was just an aesthetics thing.

On the contrary. Xiaojun actually managed to trick him and carried Xuxi’s books for him.

The regular workouts were proving to be so worth it. Xiaojun might not strain the hems of his tee's sleeves, how Xuxi did, but he didn't struggle with the two baskets and Xuxi only realised what had happened by the time they had to check the books out.

"Do you lift?" Xuxi swiped his student ID and the girl behind the counter rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Not really. I do regular strength training twice a week, two times cardio,” she did the whole thing where she opened her eyes and grimaced and Xiaojun was slightly confused as to why.

"Not bad. Where do you go?" Xuxi nodded in approval while the girl looked like she was judging them harder by the second. 

"Just the gym in the student centre. Since it's free - or rather already included in the dorm fees,” there really was no reason to be rude, they were even being quiet and all. 

"We should go together. We could spot each other and push towards higher goals! And we could talk about fossils while doing so!" Now, the girl started to look confused. Maybe, she had thought they were talking about these important things to impress her?

Life must be hard for a pretty library worker. Xiaojun felt like he should apologise to her for the male population in general and this university in particular. It might be hypocritical because he found her super good looking and would not turn down a date-invitation by her if she asked.

Obviously, he should be the one asking, being the man and all. That'd require talking to a stranger and that just wasn't going to happen.

"Your ID, please," she gestured to the box and Xiaojun swiped it before he started to bag his books.

"Thank you," he hoped a smile would help soothe her, but she still looked weirded out. Deciding he wouldn’t be able to understand her struggle and would get turned down anyway so why even try, he turned back to Xuxi - he was as handsome as she was pretty, it wasn’t a bad deal, "I mean, it sounds like a good idea, I don't bench press though."

"Do you want to try? I can help you get started!" They left the girl and the quiet zone behind, marching towards the lockers and front door. Xiaojun hadn't had a reason for not doing it other than being confused about how to go about it. Xuxi looked like he had more knowledge on working out properly than he could ever dream of compiling. If the results were anything to go by…

“Yeah, sure, why not?”

"Dope, man! Let's compare schedules so we can make it work!"

Xiaojun returned to Guanheng on his bed, listening to soft pop music and with several white sheets over his face.

He didn't scream.

He had been made fun of severely the first time, but, really, how could he have been prepared for this? Of course, he had thought Guanheng had become the victim for a demonic ritual and someone was trying to burn his face off so he wouldn’t be easy to identify by the police, buying the summoner more time to flee.

Now, he knew it was just sheet masks for better skin, less ageing, smaller pores, what else had there been? More elasticity?

To Xiaojun, they seemed mainly slimy and the taste had been bad. Not like he had licked on the one Guanheng had plastered to his face or anything… totally not.

"Hey, I'm back. Did you already eat dinner?"

Guanheng lifted the lower half of his masks to allow talking.

"I did, met up with Meiqi and Yangyang. Did you? I thought you were doing fine after you didn't send any SOS messages? Should I have called the cops? Did you eat?"

"Yeah, I met Xuxi at the library and we ended up getting lost in the science building again. I really thought I knew where I was going… anyway, he wasn't mad so that was good and we also actually found the Archaeopteryx replication. Since it was already late by then, we had lunch and then Xuxi said I was eating too little protein for good gains, which was very confusing but then we did a whole nutrition thing. Then we met someone from a buddy-system thing with exchange students he's part of and now I know someone from Korea and can introduce myself in Korean. By the time we ran out of stuff to talk about, it was already six, so, we had dan dan noodles to test his spice tolerance."

Guanheng had put the mask back down and typed on his phone to answer. Since his eyes were also patched up, it was barely legible, but Xiaojun managed to decipher Guanheng declaring his pride in Xiaojun already developing social skills.

"Thanks. I think it was mainly Xuxi's doing, though. Do you need the shower?"

Guanheng made a noise that sounded like a squeak meeting a choking parrot.

His next message read: "Vroke! Gktta rwll mum!!"

"The shower broke? Mum? You mean Kun?"

Guanheng nodded, but only as much as his masks allowed.

"Didn't you yet?"

A small shake.

"Why?"

Xiaojun had about zero interest in interacting with motivated tutors older and more impressive than himself. Eleven was as intimidating as he was willing to approach, and even that only because he had already gotten to know her and she was quirky and fun, so that made it somewhat easier.

Kun was a different topic entirely. At least he wasn't a perfect stranger, which would have meant Xiaojun would have gone to bed without a shower. Still. He probably only had 100%s on his tests and never got lost in science buildings. Lame fashion or not, Xiaojun didn’t feel ready to knock on his door to tell him their shower had broken! That was so lame! Even if he had strongly encouraged to 'absolutely tell him anything because no question is a dumb one and he was super happy to help them with everything from dorm to schedule to homesickness.'

"I'm sorry, beauty was more important. I can go in 45 min when this is done."

With that, Guanheng disappeared back behind his ghost costume and folded his hand over his chest like a vampire ready to descend into their coffin.

Xiaojun glanced into the bathroom, but the entire mounting had come down. He still remembered all the important parts of the lease he had signed to get this room – it was important to know contracts, after all. It very clearly and unmistakably stated any sort of damage was to be reported immediately or severe penalties would be put on them.

Xiaojun’s bank account was more important than his reluctance to interact with Kun and he really wanted to go to bed but not without showering – he had already done that yesterday and he realised it was gross. No wonder his mum had never allowed him to do it.

Kun lived on their floor, but he was responsible for the one above and below as well. This one was the one the first-years were located in, who presumably needed his support more often than the older inhabitants. He also had his room to himself, which seemed like it was peaceful but would have likely doomed Xiaojun into hermit-life. The single-room in itself wasn’t as shocking. In other buildings, singles were available to the plebs as well, like Xuxi's – but there, they came with other drawbacks, such as a community bathroom.

Xiaojun would take three Guanheng’s over one community bathroom any day even if he had good socialising-skills and wasn’t dependant on his roomie adopting him to make friends.

Of course, Kun had good socialising skills and also his own shower, but he also had a ton of work and responsibility, so Xiaojun still wouldn't want to change.

The door opened barely seconds after Xiaojun's last knock, revealing a smiling Kun. He had his hair pushed back with the patch-things girls in Xiaojun's high school had used. They always looked sort of dorky but seemed extremely helpful. Xiaojun had been unaware guys were allowed to use those.

"Hey! Oh, Dejun, how are you?"

Xiaojun wished for someone to talk on his behalf, maybe his mum?

No, he was adulting here!

"Uhhhh fine. No, wait, not so fine, uh, the pole-thing in our shower broke? I'm unsure how, my roomie noticed. Uh, yeah. Do you know what to do?"

Kun pulled the patches from his hair and nodded.

"Those are an Achilles heel to all bathrooms in this house, unfortunately. But worry not, I'm already doing this for the second year, the pole will not stop you from having an enjoyable shower. Let me get my tools and if you could show me, I'll check and hopefully immediately fix it for you."

Xiaojun was left in front of the door for a few minutes and wondered if they'd get some sort of minus points for the utter mess their room had descended into… they wouldn't, right? There were no rules on cleanliness, other than during move-out… or were there?

Kun opened the door again, a selection of screwdrivers in hand.

"Let's see the patient," Xiaojun nodded awkwardly and started shuffling down the hall, followed by their tutor, "If it's a bigger issue, which happens from time to time due to material ageing, I'll inform the dorm management and they'll send someone to replace it. The good news is that it's unlikely to bother you again after because the newer poles are different, not as fragile and sensitive. The bad news is that might take up to two weeks and they usually barge in and leave wasteland in their path."

Xiaojun nodded and felt nervous typing in the pin to open their door. Wasteland would be overstating it, but it was probably on its way… However, Kun happily waltzed inside, sparing neither the ramen packings on the floor nor the dirty laundry spread generously over any available surface any mind.

"Hello Guanheng. Almost didn't notice you there," Kun greeted and worked his way through several pairs of shoes to the bathroom door like an explorer in the jungle.

Xiaojun followed and watched how Kun unscrewed the fastenings and plucked the pole right back in.

Within three minutes, order had been restored.

Fascinating.

"All done. I hope it holds. If not, don't hesitate to tell me, I'm always happy when I can offer such an easy solution."

"E-easy?"

"Of course. It's just a question of a bit of practice and the right equipment. I'd teach you, but I still have a stack of paperwork to go through. Three floors are a lot to handle, especially when you accidentally become head of the building. You know how it is…" Kun stepped out of the shower, and, no, Xiaojun happened to not know how it was.

"Thank you so much," he at least remembered basic politeness, so his mum wouldn't have to be disappointed in him.

They had left the tiny bathroom. Xiaojun guessed seeing a gust off at the door was basic politeness, too, even in a 20 square-metre room.

Guanheng had, apparently, finished at least part of his beauty routine early, leaving him only in his basic sheet mask, and was on his bed with a guy Xiaojun didn't know. The stranger was marking things in Guanheng's first-year booklet. Hearing Kun and Xiaojun exit, they both looked up. Xiaojun immediately felt like he should know his roommate's friend's name, but he came up blank.

Said friend looked like it was at least Lord Voldemort leaving the bathroom. Xiaojun felt slightly self-conscious and wondered if he had some sort of stain on his clothes? He looked down but there was nothing there.

Kun pushed past him and with two (very hurried) steps he was out the room, a fast final "Goodbye!" and he rushed down the hall like he was being chased by the dark lord from the bathroom.

So, that was weird.

"Wow. Impressive. I really got the feeling there was no tension between you at all. Nevermind how maturely you two spoke to each other. I'm really hoping to learn from your book in the future," Guanheng announced. Xiaojun blinked in confusion. He had definitely missed something there. The guy on the bed very decidedly kept his head down like the first-year booklet was a complex publication on theoretical physics.

"Please, you’re reading things into this. He clearly was in a hurry, he has a lot to do. Don't distract. We're not going to the cheerleader tryouts, no matter how much we'd like to, they're bullies and only accept cis gays because it's good for their image and they live in some fantasy world where they’re accessories. Sorry." The guy crossed something else out. His voice was familiar, too. The way he mispronounced some things and had a slightly off rhythm to his Mandarin. The pitch was lower, but he definitely reminded Xiaojun of someone. Just whom? Weird.

He suddenly looked up and fixed Xiaojun in a stare: "Do you plan any extracurricular activities? There's many sexist and queerphobic clubs out there, I'd at least like to tell you about them in hopes of you deciding to not support them. Informed decisions and stuff."

Xiaojun was slightly unsettled. Had he forgotten he already knew this person? He really didn't remember him yet he treated him like they knew each other.

Help?

But Guanheng was peeling the facemask off and couldn't give him hints as to who he was talking to right now.

"Just the voluntary lab lessons…"

The guy raised his eyebrows and grinned.

"Oh, those should be fine then. I know Xuxi’s going, too. He gushed all about you two matching schedules to work out together. I think it’s really cute. The Q in LGBTQA+ can stand for questioning as well, in some interpretations, you know? Just tell us when you want to change labels," Xiaojun had finally done his due diligence and read up about the LGBTQA+ abbreviation and what it stood for, only to feel uneducated again.

Nevermind he obviously was straight, right? Why would he not be?

There were much more pressing questions at hand than whether or not it was acceptable straight-behaviour to match schedules and extracurriculars. Or text until midnight. Or spend all Saturday together. Chances were, that was all totally normal anyway.

Because from this suggestion there was more than friendship between him and Xuxi, Xiaojun was now quite sure in who the guy reminded him of.

"Uh, are you perhaps related to Eleven?"

Impossibly, the other’s eyebrows rose even higher and Xiaojun realised how rude he had just been. He wished for a shell to crawl into, never to be seen again.

Guanheng stared at him in disbelief and Xiaojun was sure he had messed up terribly. The shell, hallo, anybody? He’d even agree with the ground opening and swallowing him whole, totally fine as long as he could get out of this awkward situation. A time machine, perhaps, to slap himself before blabbering before thinking?

Then, luckily, the suspected relative started to laugh.

"Oh, no one asked that before. Sorry, I should have re-introduced myself, but I don’t bother with most because they aren’t worth my time. Now I feel kinda rude. I'm Ten, but on other days, I'm Eleven. You could say we're related, in a way."

Xiaojun looked to Guanheng for confirmation. The look of shock was gone and the other looked back at him like he expected him to do something but Xiaojun wasn't sure what, "uh… okay. Do I just adjust based on how you look? Or is there another system?"

Was this rude to ask? Well, too late now, it seemed that Ten’s presence made him talk first, think later. What an utterly useless skill to have.

"You can. I have days where I'm neither a man nor a woman as well, but I'll let you know if you got it wrong or it bothers me. I really don't stress as long as you don't insist I'm to be what you decide I should be. I know it can be hard to express it in our bi-gendered society."

Xiaojun understood about 50% of that, but he nodded regardless. He might google it later when ordering the hair-patch things he had thought were only for girls.

“Well, with that taken care of, we can go back to talking about Kun,” Guanheng grinned brightly and looked as relieved as Xiaojun felt.

“Don’t test your luck. I’m graciously giving you my wisdom now, but don’t try me,” Ten used his pen to draw a mark on Guanheng’s cheek, that looked a lot like a dick.

“I just did facemasks!” his roommate screeched and started rubbing.

“Oops, how clumsy of me. Oh no, it’s permanent marker, too! Looks like you’ll have to scrub a lot!”

“Fuck you!” Guanheng was scrambling off the bed into the bathroom that Xiaojun had just wanted to finally shower in.

The sound of Guanheng cursing Ten over the running water echoed from it and Xiaojun sighed and sat down on his bed, pyjamas in hand.

“Do you actually work out, or are you just trying to find excuses to hang out with Xuxi?” Ten asked while littering more dicks over Guanheng’s booklet.

Xiaojun frowned and put a soothing hand on his terribly insulted, defined and strong noodle arms through his hoodie. He had carried Xuxi's books, why did these traitors not show the effort?

Well, with Xuxi's help, they soon would. Hopefully.

“I’ve been going to the gym for months. Isn’t it obvious?” Xiaojun knew it wasn't but he was still offended. Triangle-shaped torso or not, his body had improved since he had started and he was proud of it.

“Honestly, no, you’re a bit twink-y, but I mean it in a good way, I don’t think you’re dumb.”

“Aha... what’s twink-y?” Xiaojun guessed it might be referring to someone not as bright if Ten added that, but other than that, he didn’t know the term.

“You should look it up. Try p o r n h u b dot com, slash g a y p o r n. I know you’ll be enlightened,” Ten’s smile grew mischievous and Xiaojun sighed deeply.

“I don’t watch pornhub.”

Ten burst into hysterical laughter so bad he toppled off Guanheng’s bed and curled up on the floor where he continued to almost suffocate for minutes while Xiaojun opened his texts with Xuxi. He had sent a video with a tiny and adorable animated Tyranno Saurus.

Maybe, he should jack off in the shower? Now that they had talked about porn and he remembered the tight t-shirt on Xuxi, he felt in the mood…

Ten was still laughing – and crying – when Guanheng re-emerged from the emergency washing-session, cheek bright pink but dick-free.

“What happened?”

Ten gasped somethings incoherent to the human ear.

“Ten has the humour of a 12-year-old,” Xiaojun explained.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)
> 
> Twitter: @155Fox


	3. Chapter 3

Funnily enough, it had been ridiculously easy to talk to strangers when Xuxi or Guanheng were there, but the moment Xiaojun was alone in his classes, he barely bothered looking up from his screen to greet the person sitting down next to him.

‘ew, people’ battled the ‘make friends and network like an adult!!!’ in his head, but as it stood, the ‘ew, people’ part won quite easily.

He had at least gotten to know most of his year by name during the pub crawl, but, as per usual, 70% of the names had bid his memory goodbye shortly after, never to be seen again.

He also had no clue what his lab partner was called, but the chance to ask again had passed days ago and now it was just a neverending awkward situation. Xiaojun tried hard to grab a short gaze of it on some of his personal belongings, but it seemed the good man saw it unnecessarily to label any of them.

What if he lost something? Xiaojun had everything labelled, even his phone. Just in case!

"So, like, are you good with writing? Because we have to get through the whole book and I thought we could share the work," the unnamed lab-partner tapped his unlabelled biro onto his unlabelled notepad.

"It's teamwork, though. You do the experiment together and then you both document and later compile, so you have a high-quality report," Xiaojun carefully disagreed. He didn't want to be a spoilsport, but he had already noticed the other didn't seem very invested in the subject last week, during the first lesson where he had just ended up with another left-over because he hadn’t bothered making friends. It was fine if he wasn't interested but Xiaojun wasn't going to drag his ass to a good grade.

"Yeah, I mean, I'd do the whole practical stuff, including cleaning up, and you’d write the reports? In the end, we have to do that regardless, you know? The work has to be done one way or another."

In other words: even if Xiaojun insisted on teamwork, he was just not going to do his writing, giving them the same result only Xiaojun would also do the actual experimenting - aka everything with him just chilling

Well, great.

Normally, his mum had talked to teachers in cases like this.

No mum was here to step in now. Xiaojun was an adult!

"Uh… if you don't do any work, you'll fail."

Wow, Xiaojun sounded about as threatening as a chipmunk. Surely, his nameless lab partner was shaking as much as Schwarzenegger in lights of Xiaojun's muscle mass.

"Don't really care. I mean, it's up to you. Lab's only fun if it's explosives and dangerous, right? The rest is just gay."

Xiaojun wondered if he was not understanding the meaning of the word, but the guy chuckled like he had made a funny joke.

"If you don't pull your weight, I'll tell our TA. I'll not help you get a good grade if you don't move a finger."

The guy's laughter got stuck in his throat and his grin turned into a scowl. Xiaojun held his gaze, feeling rather unimpressed. He wasn’t going to catch him at the lockers to beat him up, this was university. Being in the right and being super uninterested in the people around him and what they might think of him because the anti-social part of his brain had won the second this man had turned out to be a douche, left him unbothered and confident enough not to give in.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I mean. It's really up to you. But you wouldn't want people to think weirdly about you, right?"

Xiaojun frowned. What did this guy think this was? High school with people bullying each other into crying secretly at home?

If only he knew how terribly irrelevant other peoples’ opinion was to Xiaojun.

"We're not splitting anything."

"You’re such a nerd, I should have known you were when you didn’t have anyone else to partner up. Something had to be up.”

“Wow, what a looser. Impressive you kept a cool head. He’ll realise he won’t crack you. Right, you won’t crack, will you? If you feel like you might, I can totally come with you to talk to anyone, you’re absolutely within your rights, teamwork is teamwork.”

Xiaojun grunted and finished the tenth repetition before dropping the bar on the rests. His arms burnt in the best way and he had to catch his breath. Xuxi leaned over him, concern on his face that looked even better with the sheen of sweat practically making it glow. It really didn’t help with the whole breathing thing when Xiaojun had to look at this gorgeous man.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I don’t really care. I already made, like, three friends?” Was Ten considered a friend? Was Yangyang? Chengxiao totally was! Regardless, it was far above his usual average, though he was still considering to download a dating app to find a girlfriend, “I don’t need more.”

“Three? That’s so little, though!” Xuxi gasped and Xiaojun sat up to switch with him. Xuxi had already added his weights to one side and Xiaojun tried to ignore he pressed almost three times as heavy he did.

“Meh, it’s fine for me, I’m not that extroverted. I’d rather have a few good friends than many acquaintances.”

“Okay, good, good, as long as you’re happy, that’s the most important!” Xuxi beamed before lying down on the bench. Xiaojun positioned himself on the head end and wondered why his heart was racing.

“Anyway, lab’s still interesting. I’m really looking forward to Friday when I can practice some more. Maybe we’ll do some experiments more on the side of fun but less complex. I thought maybe some salt-reactions? Or flame-tests? I always wanted to try taking pictures since I saw some online that looked insane. I mean, it’s just ideas but yeah. Do you already have a lab partner?”

Xuxi looked so sexy with his face set in concentration and his arms and shoulders strained to push the 120 kg up in controlled motions, Xiaojun felt himself grow flustered just watching.

He finished his repetitions and the seriousness was replaced by another easy grin.

“Of course, I do,” Xiaojun’s heart sunk though he couldn’t say he was surprised. Xuxi probably knew 75% of the campus if him greeting-rate in the hallways and cafeteria was anything to go by, “You!”

Xiaojun sputtered, surprise and happiness mixing in his chest.

“Or do you have someone else? Someone less dangerous in the lab?” Xuxi raised an eyebrow and flexed his arms.

Xiaojun shoved him as forcefully as he could, which really didn’t do much, and started pulling the weights off the bar to put them away.

“I don’t, don’t scare me like that. You were already down to only owing me only one coffee, maybe I’ll have to add another one for this.”

Xuxi laughed and casually took the rest of the weights to stack them where they belonged, “Maybe, that was the goal?”

Xiaojun’s heart was definitely racing now as if getting coffee with a friend was some headline-worthy news. Stupid organ!

“Are you free now?” Xuxi asked and glanced up to the big clock over the mirrors.

“For coffee? It’s 7 pm!” Xiaojun pushed his hair from his forehead, realising how gross, sticky, and wet it was.

“No, I’ll save that for a better time, but for dinner! Get some protein back in for the six-pack,” Xuxi stroked a hand over Xiaojun’s stomach, that was a two-pack at very best, but mostly a rib-pack. His skin tingled and it was almost as if he had touched him skin-on-skin. What the hell? Why did he grow excited over his buddie touching him?

Well, it might be because he was nervous in the presence of someone as shredded as Xuxi. His arms really showed their full potential in this sleeveless shirt…

“Yeah, sure, but I need a shower first.”

So, normally, community showers were a hygiene risk Xiaojun wasn’t willing to take.

Today, however, there was suddenly an entirely unknown risk at hand. A 1.85 m risk with rippling muscle and perfect tan, who didn’t bother wrapping a towel around his hips because ‘anyone interested would see it in a moment anyway’.

Xiaojun stared at the door of his locker while the sound of Xuxi’s flip-flops disappeared into the shower room.

He wasn’t even interested, right? But he had definitely looked. He had looked so much, Xuxi must have felt his skin burn away where Xiaojun’s eyes had lingered but he had been unable to turn away.

There was just too much to admire. Like his back, that looked like a statue carved from marble, the muscle moving beautifully with his body. He had accidentally followed the harsh lines down over his ass. For science. Science proved, that it was a very firm and nice ass. Xiaojun’s own still held a bit of fat that made it squishy. There was nothing squishy about Xuxi. And his legs! The upper thighs were almost as mouth-watering (wait, what?) as his arms. Especially with his darker skin, it really showed off how great his body was. He even had a decent amount of body hair.

He also had body hair on his front, specifically running down from his navel. Yes, Xiaojun had looked. For science. He had also inspected how his abdominal muscles did this incredibly sexy V-thing over his hips. It had happened to lead right down another path he hadn’t even had planned to go down.

It was true, though. Xuxi had no reason _whatsoever_ to be self-conscious while driving a huge SUV (or doing any other activity, be it leasure or work) – and that when he was soft! He most likely grew at least a bit if Xiaojun’s biology lessons were to be trusted (and his own experience, but he digressed).

Slowly, he let his forehead fall against the cool locker door and took several calming breaths.

He was just so hot!

Xiaojun tried to pull himself together, but while his head was slowly overcoming the spontaneous breakdown Xuxi’s bare skin had inflicted, his dick was not cooperating.

Admittedly, Xiaojun had kind of thought about Xuxi’s arms before while getting off, but this? Oh yeah, there was so much to fantasise about. His cock twitched and Xiaojun groaned under his breath. Yep, he’d better get away before Xuxi finished.

He grabbed his bag and adjusted himself in his pants before he waddled from the changing room.

The trip between the dorm’s gym and his room felt like the march on the Silk Road from Xi’an to Istanbul. Especially because of this inconvenient hard-on.

Come on, he wanted to get dinner with Xuxi!

Very hot, very sexy Xuxi… goddamnit, could his brain please overcome his horny teenage phase?

Also… wasn’t it kinda gay to think of a guy to get turned on?

Nah, Xiaojun obviously was straight!

He eventually arrived and darted right into the bathroom, locking it securely behind himself before ripping his clothes off to get into the shower, where he wrapped his fingers around his length.

Xiaojun didn’t even last two minutes, which was both pathetic and useful in lights of his dinner date.

Seeing Xuxi grin and him recommending he’d get the stir fry with extra duck, when he had just cum to his image, felt just a little awkward. But because it was Xuxi and it seemed he never let people feel that way around him, Xiaojun overcame it relatively quickly when they started talking about the most recently released Mercedes commercial and whether or not the lips of the star of said advertisement, Cai Xukun, were nice and plump or looked like a rubber boat.

In Xiaojun’s opinion, it was totally the latter. In Xuxi’s it was the former.

“I thought you liked guys like Chris Pratt? Now you praise Xukun’s visuals, they look nothing alike!” Xiaojun had the urge to check his own lips, to see if they were on level with Cai Xukun’s. He couldn’t compare himself to Chris Pratt, Cai Xukun on the other hand...

“Well, Chris Pratt is hot as fuck and could bend me over in the backstage area any time, but Xukun is cute and I want to feed him and talk about the transition from pakticetus to cetaceans. Open up,”

Xiaojun obediently opened to take the duck from Xuxi’s chopsticks. Wow, why was he now jealous of Cai Xukun?

“I’m confused.”

“Well, who’re your celebrity crushes then, I can make a connection, I’m sure.”

Xiaojun chewed on the meat and wrinkled his nose.

“I don’t really… have any? I don’t know, I never considered who I’d crush on.”

“Well, you must have a type of person you find attractive?” Xuxi tried and Xiaojun happened to look at him the same moment.

Oh yes, Xiaojun did.

Him!

Wait, what?

“I mean, just someone attractive, I guess?” Xiaojun decided he was not going to figure any of this out today, so he returned his attention to his stir-fry.

“Okay, well, I didn’t mean to pressure you or anything, it’s okay to not know or not want to tell, right? I wouldn’t judge you for it in any case, I want you to know that.”

“Thanks,” Xiaojun told his stir-fry because his face was feeling rather hot and he was probably turning Cosmopolitan-pink – not for the first time.

“So, now that this became weird, let’s talk about the cute puppy my little brother wants to adopt.”

“You have a little brother?”

Xuxi grinned and puffed his chest, like he needed to be any bigger than he already was and had personally conceived, birthed, nursed, and raised said little brother instead of probably switching the toilet lights off while he was inside at least once during their childhood.

“Well, I do. He’s, unfortunately for him, not even nearly as handsome as I, though.”

“Do you have a photo? I’ll be the judge of that,” Xiaojun challenged and saw Xuxi’s eyebrow twitch at the demand.

“Sure do, you’ll see he’s no match to this face.”

“Glad to hear you being so humble,” Xiaojun picked the phone from Xuxi’s hands and inspected the photo on the screen.

It seemed fairly recent. Xuxi had his arm around who must be his brother. The other boy looked at least four years younger and was much shorter. He had glasses, but when Xiaojun zoomed in on his face, he could see some resemblance.

“He’s got squishy cheeks! How old is he?” Xiaojun cooed at the phone.

“He hates it when you squish them, though, just as a warning. He’s 16 now,” Xuxi's voice was back to proud-brother instead of cocky hottie.

“Do you get along well?”

“Yeah, more or less. I guess normal for siblings. The bigger age difference makes it a bit more relaxed, I really got to play up the protective Gege role when he got bullied in primary school. Do you have siblings?”

“I do, I have an older brother. We get along quite well, I think. As you said, there's normal sibling banter. We text each other a lot these days because he studies in Shenzhen and it’s kinda far to visit.”

“But he’s close to home, I’m envious.”

Xiaojun nodded. He felt the sudden need to overshare embarrassing details about his life, “It’s been fine so far, but I guess I miss my mum and my stepdad a bit.”

Luckily for him, Xuxi nodded in understanding instead of mocking him for being homesick, “Same. I especially miss her food, urgh, she cooks so well, it’s like nothing else! My mum’s from Thailand, so she makes Thai food but I’ve yet to find a restaurant here that gets even close to what she makes.”

“Oh, I never knew! Is your dad from Thailand as well?”

Lucas laughed and shook his head, “It’s a really funny story, my dad went to Thailand on holiday and met her, fell in love, and eventually brought her back home to Hongkong. My mum’s beautiful, I tell you, it’s no surprise my dad was head over heels for her!”

“I guess your genes have to come from somewhere,” Xiaojun sighed before realising his mistake. Goddamnit!!

“Thanks,” Xuxi winked and offered another piece of duck, which Xiaojun took just to brush over the situation he had brought himself into by his new skill _speaking before thinking_. He’d like to please deinstall this, he wasn’t happy with the performance, thank you.

“So, the whales I spoke of earlier – I saw a super interesting documentary about killer whales two nights ago,”

“I know, you texted me you did.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t thoroughly discussed it with you yet.”

“Okay, I’m listening, what happened?”

Xiaojun made a point of staring at only his gym bag on Thursday when Xuxi hit the shower without a care in the world.

It helped. Somewhat.

His dick was only half-hard by the time he was in his own shower and could finally allow his brain to go there and think of how sexy Xuxi was.

Was this gay? It seemed a little gay, which made no sense seeing how Xiaojun was straight.

Well, surely lots of straight people did this as well, no reason to worry.

“So, I heard through the grapevine that you two already snug your way into your TA’s favourites list on Friday. That’s so cute, the little gay nerds being all smart and adored by the masses!” Xuanyi squeezed Xiaojun’s cheeks because he was within reaching distance. As the eldest, she had proclaimed to have the right to squeeze everyone’s cheeks – including Ten’s.

“I’m straight,” Xiaojun tried to say but due to his mouth being pulled apart, it was incomprehensible.

Whatever.

“Honestly, it was mainly Xiaojun’s work. I don’t want to snatch his credit. We had the most amazing Magnesium flames, they came out so cool, did you see my Weibo post?” Xuxi gushed and produced his phone, for which he used his arms so much that he nearly knocked over the beer. Sicheng’s quick reflexes saved them a spontaneous bathing session and a mess to clean up.

“I saw it. I thought you did something cool only to read you did that in extra, voluntary lab classes. I nearly cried for you,” Yangyang announced and took a long swig of his own can. The Nine Percent poster he was leaned against looked a bit wrinkly and Xiaojun considered pointing out that Guanheng had spent a lot of time decorating.

Speaking of, where was he? Ten and he had disappeared into the bathroom quite some time ago, shouldn’t the hair dye be done by now? How long did hair dye take? Xiaojun had never personally tried any because his school’s dress code hadn’t allowed it. Surely no longer than 15 minutes, right?

“Same, honestly, but then I thought I should stop being so judgemental and decided to focus that energy on some cishet guys being disgusting _alpha males_ in the cafeteria. They actually deserve the disrespect.” Meiqi leaned against the Cheng Linong poster and it ripped on the pins. Xiaojun winced.

“So, what are your extracurriculars then, I bet none of them are as cool and mine and Xiaojun’s,” Xuxi challenged.

There was awkward silence, then, Sicheng answered, “Traditional dance. I considered studying it full-time but the career chances are terrible and it's not something you can do for very long because your body will just age and put an end to it.”

Xiaojun was quite surprised to hear that. Sicheng seemed rather stern and serious. Now, there was an adorable little smile on his face that made Xiaojun want to jump up and declare he’d protect him from anything and anyone. It seemed unlikely Sichen would need his protection as the world's tiniest bodyguard but still.

“Yes! He’s amazing, we went to their performance last year. We should go together again this year! Will your boyfriend come?” Xuanyi nodded wildly.

A soft blush spread over Sicheng’s cheeks, completely unexpected and only intensifying the need to protect. Which, that was probably super embarrassing to say out loud. Xiaojun took another sip of his mixed drink and shuddered as it went down.

“He’s trying to make it for the summer festival so we’ll have a few days here before we fly to Osaka together and then Wenzhou.”

The entire room cooed and Xiaojun tried to imagine having a long-distance relationship. That felt like it must mean a lot of sacrifices, but also even stronger love, that would hold despite that. How nice. Sicheng seemed so happy.

“The summer festival really is a highlight of the year, you have to mark your calendars. It’s kind of mandatory to attend anyway because they want you to cheer for the sports competitions, but everything around is just as much worth it!” Chengxiao explained.

“Yeah, especially since they don’t hype it up as much, we need to support it,” Xuanyi agreed.

“It’s because there’s no majority of males involved, so it doesn’t matter. Ah, I hate patriarchy. No personal offence to anyone present only actually yes because you all have male privilege,” Meiqi emptied the rest of her beer and grabbed another.

Xiaojun was definitely not going to get drunk on Desperados. For one, it tasted awful, but he also still remembered regretting it dearly last week, so it might be for the better. Xuxi had no such issues because he liked plain beer enough to be on his fifth bottle. With each one, he had scooted a little closer and by now, he had an arm around Xiaojun’s shoulders. It was warm and comfortable and there was also no room in his and Guanheng’s tiny double, so Xiaojun just stayed where he was.

The bathroom door opened and out came Guanheng, followed by Ten.

All talks immediately halted and their heads snapped around to focus on… the situation…

“Tada, what do you think?” Ten waved his hands and Guanheng’s sparkly eyeshadow almost made Xiaojun forget the new hair colour of his roomie.

Almost, because teal just wasn’t a hair colour to easily forget.

“How did you get that done in two hours?” Xuanyi finally asked. Holy shit, had it been two hours? And that was considered _fast_?

Xiaojun was never going to dye his har!

“It’s so shiny,” Yangyang mumbled.

“Yes, yes, I know, I know, I’m amazing,” Ten grinned and sunk down on a tiny free spot on Xiaojun’s bed.

“You can try, he won’t tell you, it’s Ten’s black magic,” Sicheng interrupted any potential questions before they were even voiced.

“Didn’t we agree you had to save my hair some time?” Meiqi inquired and pulled on her orange ends.

“We did but then you never have time because you’re busy-busy,” Ten chirped and accepted a beer from Sicheng.

“True. Urgh. I’ll make time. I also have a root situation coming so I need some help, like, desperately,” Meiqi moved and the poster ripped.

Guanheng screamed, Chenxiao screamed because Guanheng screamed, and Ten screamed because two people were screaming.

“My Nongnong! That was a limited edition and bid me goodnight daily! You heathen!” Guanheng jumped across the bed to save the ripped poster. Xuanyi took an arm to the face and Yangyang was completely flattened into the mattress.

Meiqi was the only one unharmed and now slowly moved away to stay it.

“Sorry, I guess? Didn’t see him there, he looked so basic I thought it wouldn’t matter.”

“Basic?” Guanheng clutched the poster, then realised that only wrinkled it worse.

“Excuse you, Nongnong is a beam of sunshine and not basic!” Xuxi now yelled. Xiaojun made a note to check this Nongnong out, just to see how he'd compare. He may or may not have already done so with all the NCT Dream members and gone into further detail about Cai Xukun after their discussion a few days ago. For science. Not because he was trying to understand what Xuxi's type was.

“Yeah! How could you disrespect him like that, he’s so cute you have to protect him!” Xuanyi joined the forces. Xiaojun was pulled sideways by Xuxi leaning over and forgetting he still had his arm around him.

“Okay, okay, okay, sorry, please don’t stake me. You know I just don’t care about men, those present excepted,” Meiqi raised her hands defensively.

Guanheng sniffed, “My poor poster!”

“I can help you fix it,” Sicheng softly offered, like a voice of reason in the mess the room had descended into.

Xuxi tightened his grip around Xiaojun and suddenly rested his head on his shoulder, which he managed to despite the height difference.

“Do you like Lu Han? Do you bid him goodnight as well?” he sounded pouty and Xiaojun tried to pry him off his shoulder but failed.

“No, what? Why would I?”

“Because you have his poster. You should replace it with me!” Xiaojun guessed he did, but he definitely did no such thing.

“I only have it because Guanheng found my family’s snakes scary. And I won’t replace it with you, that’s just creepy,” Xuxi hummed, seemingly satisfied. Xiaojun guessed he had no choice but to accept his new fate as a Xuxi-rest.

It really wasn’t half bad. If only Xuxi didn’t smell so intoxicatingly good of some flowery perfume and his body didn’t feel so huge against Xiaojun’s own…

“Guys, I know, we have to play never have I ever!” Xuanyi loudly suggested.

“Haven’t we done that a million times? I don’t need more emotional scarring,” Sicheng complained.

“But not with the new additions,” Meiqi grinned almost like a predator.

“Yep, this is a necessary inauguration process,” Ten agreed.

Xiaojun immediately started to gather his favourite questions for the occasion and wondered if he should fit in more that’d help everyone find out actually useful things about the others. On such short notice, nothing better than his all-time number on ‘never have I ever wished to be a vampire’ because almost everyone had at some point but Xiaojun had always wanted to be a mummy (specifically, one of a pharaoh because he’d have a treasure in his pyramid and a fancy-ass golden death mask).

“I have nothing to be ashamed of,” Yangyang cackled and scooted to the edge of the bed for a better position.

“But I do! Oh my god, I’ll probably lose! What’s the punishment?” Guanheng frantically stroked his fingers through his teal hair.

Before an appropriate punishment couldn’t be agreed upon, there were three sharp knocks on the door, interrupting their plans for fun inaugurations.

A cold shiver ran down Xiaojun’s spine.

“Oh shit,” Guanheng whispered, speaking what everyone had to be thinking.

“All girls into the bathroom!” Ten immediately fell into action like he had done this before – which he probably had, the older members of the groups had suggested this sort of meeting, after all.

“Hide the booze,” Sicheng ordered and started picking up. Xiaojun managed to get Xuxi off him and helped. Xuxi was definitely past tipsy and stayed on his bed, pouting and now cuddling Xiaojun’s pillow.

They had managed to close the bathroom door and hide about 50% of the evidence when there was another knock.

“Guys, sorry, could you please open?”

It was Kun.

Oh no, Xiaojun immediately felt guilty for disappointing him!

“Guys, act normal, I’ll open the door, chances are he’ll be running for the hills in two seconds,” Ten announced and pushed past Guanheng to get there.

Xiaojun very quickly pulled his duvet over two more unopened bottles and proceeded to sit down like he had been doing very harmless PG-rated nighttime activities.

Ten opened the door wide enough to allow Xiaojun a glimpse into the well-lit hallway, in which Kun stood, dressed in a pyjama with a huge cardigan over top.

Like last time, it was as though Lord Voldemort himself had opened the door, not Ten.

“Hi, Kun,” Ten chirped, sounding awfully playful, his voice pitched a bit, “Fancy meeting you here, was there an issue?” Xiaojun couldn’t see Ten’s face, but he could see how he posed in the door like a model.

A short model (still taller than Xiaojun but whatever).

“Uh…” Kun very intelligently answered.

“If not, did you come to join? We’d love to have more people to play with,” Xiaojun tried to piece together how Ten was so downright flirty and how it tied in with Ten and Kun’s rivalry – as well as what had happened last time they had met. Did they like each other? Did they hate each other? Both? Neither?

Yangyang and Guanheng were balancing on the edge of his bed to get a better view.

“Uhhhh… no, I’m… I’m here because it’s 1 am and there was a noise complaint. Seeing how you’re here when this isn’t your house, as well as at least two more people that aren’t inhabitants of this building, I feel like there’s more to address than just noise,” Kun tried to peek past Ten, but Ten stepped forward and he jerked away like Ten was an electric eel and he an unlucky frog about to become a midnight snack.

Xiaojun got it. Ten had that effect. It only seemed much stronger on Kun.

“Yes, of course, I get that, but it's Saturday! Weekends are meant to be fun! You know, let loose a bit. You should try it. You could also join us. We could play spin the bottle - with mandatory kissing.”

“What? No!” Kun rubbed the bridge of his nose looking cosmopolitan pink, “Listen, Chittaphon, I just would like you to be quiet, I don’t even care about everything else.”

“Aw, that’s not what you said last time, did you?” Ten chirped before he moaned so downright filthily, Xiaojun choked on thin air.

Kun looked like he was near a meltdown now and Xiaojun wondered if Kun and Ten had been dating? Or something? It certainly sounded like they had had sex, which… well, he shouldn’t judge the tutor by the leather boat-shoes.

Why were they rivals now? Had they separated on bad terms?

Oh no, had they had a misunderstanding? A tragic ending to true love?

How sad.

“Okay, okay, enough. Please keep it down or I’ll have to inform campus security, I’d hate to do that,” and with that, Kun turned and left.

Ten softly closed the door and leaned against it.

“Well, told’ya I’d make him run for the hills,” he grinned, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

The girls came from the bathroom and Xuxi had found Xiaojun and was now using him as his pillow again.

Sicheng sighed, “Ten, how about we head home for the night?”

“What? No! I just got rid of him for us, we haven’t even started never have I ever. We’ll just be quiet. Or, if he comes again, I have more in store to appease him.” Ten made a lewd hand motion and the room softly giggled – save for Sicheng, who looked done with his friend and his antics.

So, apparently, never have I ever didn’t mean you asked some silly little question, like if you had farted in the living room before, when you were in university.

Instead, it became a lot more… personal.

Interesting.

However, even if there weren’t questions such as ‘had a prostate/vaginal orgasm before’ (what was that even? Xiaojun was as scared to google it as he was to google twink), he would have probably lost because his sexual experience was limited to the absolute barest minimum thinkable. 

Prior to this evening, Xiaojun hadn't even thought he had little theoretical knowledge but so many words he had never heard before were more than enough proof that there still were some places of the internet he hadn't stumbled across yet. Seeing how he avoided to pirate porn, it shouldn't be a surprise, he didn't just click around freely but had his library to go to…

Since everyone was so drunk at this point they didn’t even realise he still had five fingers up, it hardly mattered. He also had to handle a very persistently cuddly Xuxi, who had still admitted to jacking off to a celebrity and liking flavoured lube before becoming too sloshed to pay attention.

Why he kept drinking, Xiaojun wasn’t sure but he had eventually removed his beer. He didn’t mind Xuxi’s head in his lap too much. His hair was un-dyed raven black and soft under the fingers he carded through it. Even with a silly drunk-smile and blush, he was still so handsome!

Xiaojun felt the sudden need to lean down and kiss him, which, weird, but okay.

He obviously didn’t.

When it turned out he was too far into drunk-passed-out by the time everyone left, Xiaojun, in a moment of unparalleled altruism, decided he'd follow Sicheng's suggestion to share his tiny twin-bed. Just for the night. Even though Xuxi was too big even if he was alone in a twin-bed which meant more cuddling.

Xuxi was warm and huge and it felt quite nice to press his back against his front and let him nuzzle his face into the crook of his shoulder from behind and mumble nonsense that included a lot of ‘cute, adorable, hot’.

Xiaojun was pleased to wake up without feeling sick and without a rampant headache.

He also felt Xuxi’s morning wood press into his back, which… yep, he had definitely grown. 

Not like Xiaojun knew exactly how Xuxi’s dick looked soft because he had committed this information to memory like it was important or anything.

Just as much as it was mere coincidence Xiaojun later got off to the memory of the hardness pressing against him.

He was straight, after all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey, Xiaojun, you here?”

“I, too, have to eat to survive,” Xiaojun slid his tray onto the table on which Yangyang and Chengxiao were sitting.

“I thought you were like the other fairies and lived off sunlight?” Yangyang gasped. Xiaojun furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Where did you even get that from?”

“My own brain, thank you. Oh, speaking of! Guess whose roommate will move out into another building in a few short days? That’s right! Since she was just as fed up, we went through the contract together and marched into our tutor’s room like a swat team on dy 14 exactly. She didn’t know what hit her. Well, once we were past her, we were sent to the head of the building and then to dorm management. Thank you so much for your suggestion, I would have been a dumb idiot and never had that idea!”

Xiaojun felt himself smile. He picked his chopsticks up, which was almost a task too challenging with the sore muscles he had from yesterday’s training with Xuxi.

“No problem, really. I’m glad to hear that.”

“Yeah, me, too!” Chengxiao nodded.

“So, from one great topic to another: Did anyone hear from Ten and what happened after he was seen talking to Kun in the cafeteria on Monday?” Yangyang eyed them curiously.

Xiaojun did not keep tabs on everyone, so even this alleged Monday conversation had passed him and he had to shake his head. Chengxiao, however, nodded.

“Sicheng was exiled for sex yesterday. I met him in the library where he was moping. I don’t know if they’re back to the friends with benefits bullshit or what. I mean, Ten’s the first to lecture that falling for straights is a terrible idea, and it is, yet, here he is.”

“Well, yeah, but he also says do as I say not as I do, so I think he knows he’s a hypocrite.” Yangyang nodded solemnly.

So, there were other straight people even sleeping with guys – he totally wasn’t alone fantasising about Xuxi! Great!

“I hate the whole bi-erasure and subsequent lack of people realising there’s more options than super straight or super gay.” Chengxiao shook her head in disapproval while Xiaojun’s thoughts wandered to his and his mum’s meeting on Saturday. She was going to make the trip through China just to see him.

Well.

He couldn’t deny being a bit of a mummy’s boy and he knew she had a bit too many protective instincts for her youngest. His older brother often teased him. He knew he had been jealous when they had been younger and he had felt neglected, but they were past that, luckily.

It was unfortunate he would have to cancel his and Xuxi’s work-out and also not get to join the meeting at the football court the international students-thing did. It might be for the better, Xiaojun was terrible the moment it came to balls.

At least, he’d still have lab on Friday. He had looked up some super cool reaction with Potassium-Aluminium-Sulfate, that’d give them crystals – hopefully.

"Xiaojun? You listening?" He startled upon being addressed and snapped back to reality.

"Sorry, I was thinking about Hydro-based reactions. I zoned out."

Chengxiao giggled and Yangyang slapped his shoulder.

"We noticed. We were just asking if you'd be game to really go partying, like, really partying, next week. There's a gay bar downtown and a former member of this group will perform his first drag show. I've also only heard stories, he graduated when Ten and Sicheng were adorable first-years. I just automatically consider all queers my friends unless they give me reason not to be."

Somehow, Xiaojun found it hard to imagine Ten as anything but badass and scary. Sicheng, on the other hand, was easier. Maybe, he hadn't as much looked like he hated everyone and everything around him, more cute, soft smiles… 

"I'm not gay, though."

Yangyang rolled his eyes and Chengxiao laughed.

"Boy, neither am I, they don't check you queer ID at the door."

"Yangyang is right. You obviously shouldn't take offense to guys hitting on you, but you haven't so far so I didn't think you'd be an ass there, or would you? It's just about having a good time and supporting our friend."

Xiaojun tried to remember what guys had hit on him but he couldn't recall flirting with anyone? Regardless, he didn't mind it if they didn't insist or anything. On the contrary. Thinking anyone might find him attractive sounded rather promising. Guy or not, so what?

"Well, it sounds fun. Who does he drag, anyway?" Would it be like a roast show, perhaps? There wouldn't be any audience participation, would there?

The other two burst into loud laughter and Xiaojun found himself on the receiving end of more (painful) back-slaps from Yangyang. 

"Ohhh, no one tell him, this will be hilarious!"

So, Xiaojun remained oblivious and trusting no one would throw him in harm's way.

It was probably like stand-up comedy - save for the offensive jokes. That would be fun, right?

Xiaojun was quite sad when the barista pushed his matcha latte (in a reusable cup and without a straw, he was doing his all to save the environment) over the counter and he knew it was the last one Xuxi would pay for - he already felt sort of bad for making him buy him four different hot drinks on separate occasions, however, they all were very yummy (also bad for his gains but it was what it was) so he couldn’t feel true sorrow over putting a dent into Xuxi’s wallet.

“Over there’s your favourite table, let’s sit there,” Xuxi announced and pointed to the cuddly sofa with the extra pillows, which cases were switched every week. This week, the cafe was sea-themed but Xiaojun wasn't into home decor he only cared about the cuddliness. It was extremely high on the comfortable-scale and Xiaojun would live here if it was possible.

Which, it wasn’t. So.

“Chengxiao invited me to some friend’s show next weekend. Are you going, too?” Xiaojun put his drink down and flopped into the soft cushions with a happy grunt. Xuxi had this weird face on he sometimes had.

He seemed lost in thought until Xiaojun waved a hand to get him back to reality.

“What? Oh! Yes! Tao’s show?”

“I’m not sure, all they said was there would be dragging,” Xiaojun shrugged and started blowing his matcha latte to get it to drink-able temperature quicker.

“Dragging? You mean, uh, you mean Drag Queens?” Xuxi settled on the other side on the much less comfortable chair. Xiaojun had voiced concerns the first time, but Xuxi was more interested in the aesthetic aspect of the cafe and less in soft pillows, which meant they perfectly completed each other.

“Not sure, they didn’t mention anything of the sorts but they also said it'd be funny if I didn't know.” Xiaojun’s glasses got foggy from the steam rising from his mug and he took them off to bury them in his bag, where they belonged whenever he wasn’t in need of seeing things in the distance.

However, Xuxi grabbed his hand before he could put his plan into action.

“Please, keep them on? You look so handsome with them and you always squint when you put them down, that can’t be good for your eyes?”

Xiaojun paused, looked down to where Xuxi was gently rubbing his hand over Xiaojun’s and his skin was starting to feel like someone had lit it aflame.

“Uh…” Xuxi wasn’t wrong, his mum always scolded him when he ran around without them and he remembered his doctor saying something about muscles getting tired… “Okay?”

Instead of banishing them to the depth of his bag, he cleaned the glasses and put them back on. 

Xuxi beamed. In HD. Okay, no, had to take these off…

“Anyway, so I’ll be going for sure. I’m not sure what to wear yet, but it’ll be the perfect occasion to go all out. Just as a recommendation, by the way. I’ve not been to a gay bar yet, but it has to be paradise, from what I heard. Also, get bills you can tip with, we want to support our local drag queens!”

Xiaojun had not handled cash in at least two years, who needed that when you had Ali Pay and a phone? But okay… he made a mental mark to get some for the show. 

“I’ll just ask Guanheng. I know he’s been eager to give me a makeover. He always disses my jeans.” Xiaojun still didn’t know what was wrong with baggy jeans. They masked that his legs were a bit on the short side and looked very swagger.

“Guanheng’s a reliable source, I'm sure. I'd squeeze myself in where I don't belong but I don't have any experience in dressing others so I know my place. If you were interested in getting yourself a good car, however…” Xuxi grinned widely.

“Then, I’d be asking myself because I won’t be caught in a big-ass SUV,” Xiaojun poked his tongue out and Xuxi’s grin only grew, “It’s bad for the environment, just so you know.”

“Oh, and your Maybach wouldn’t be? Good thing we’re only able to drive those in our dreams, anyway.”

Xiaojun sighed deeply and snatched a piece of cookie from Xuxi’s plate. He should have gotten one, too, but he didn’t want to be greedy and make the other pay for more than the agreed-upon coffee. Which wasn’t even a coffee because he had felt like matcha today.

“Do you already have an idea for lab on Friday? Because I thought some Potassium-Aluminium-Sulfate in water would be super cool. You just hang some string in there and you get crystals!” Xiaojun scooted to the edge of the sofa in hopes of conveying just how AWESOME that’d be to Xuxi.

“Will they sparkle?” Xuxi raised an eyebrow and Xiaojun hesitated.

“I’m not sure? That wasn’t my priority, but they will be still super cool and you could shape them?” he cocked his head, hoping it would be more convincing, “Please?” 

Xuxi, face slowly turned more red, which was odd but his coffee might be quite hot, who knew. “Y-yeah, s-sure. Was just messing. With you.”

“Great! Okay, I’ll write the TA an email to ask if they have everything but I think it should be fine, you can get it in a regular drugstore without any sort of licence.” Xiaojun nodded to himself and saved the to-do next to the cash-withdrawal.

“Dejun!” his mum screamed and Xiaojun quickly looked around but at 8 on a Saturday, the campus was still eerily silent. Kun might be up, writing some reports, who knew, but other than that - no one.

“Hi mum,” he loved her, but he hoped to get her away and avoid new embarrassments.

Her arms caught him in a hug and she squeezed tightly while littering kisses on his cheek. 

It was nice to see her again. Even though it had only been four weeks. 

He had missed her.

“You got so big!” she finally let go and pushed him at arm’s length to inspect.

Xiaojun couldn’t hold a smirk.

“I got a new work-out routine. I found a gym-buddy. He’s really good, I mean, you should see him, he has arms like this. Anyway, he helps me and it’s more fun to go together,” when he left out the part where he was, without fail, always in a panic and left with at least half a hard-on from Xuxi flaunting around the changing room.

“It’s showing so much, my goodness, my little baby is growing up!” she squeezed him again and Xiaojun gasped, “and you made friends, I’m so happy! Did you snatch yourself a cute girl yet?”

Xiaojun struggled and got free.

Right, that.

“Uh, no. Kinda didn’t have time. Did I tell you that my gym buddy is also really into archaeology? And dinosaurs? Oh, and Mercedes! We do the lab together, too. Wait, we made the coolest crystals yesterday, let me show you a picture, we made our names but they turned out a bit crooked.”

His mum had a very weird smile on when he turned towards her with his phone and Xiaojun wondered if she was alright.

It might just be her proud-mum smile. She had also worn that when his older brother had introduced his girlfriend. 

His mum bought him a new cardigan, which he definitely didn’t need but it was free so he wouldn’t complain. They were cultured and visited two exhibitions with great photos in the first and confusing paintings in the second. Xiaojun was not there yet when it came to understanding modern art, she said. Fine. They also had more food than reasonable for two people as tiny as them, which was great.

“Mum, wait!” Xiaojun nearly smacked her with his skewer and pulled her behind the closest stall. They had stopped by the street best known for snacks in the entire city in an effort to gain 10 kilograms each in just one day.

“What’s wrong, honey?” she looked at him like he had lost it - who could blame her. 

However, Xiaojun couldn’t waste time on explaining he was doing perfectly fine. He pulled out his phone, bonked it against his chicken, which left sauce on the screen but he wouldn’t let that stop him. He successfully opened the camera app and zoomed in on the couple that was just inspecting the menu of the dumpling-vendor. They were about the same height, which was cute, and the girl had luscious long hair down to her waist, dressed in soft greys and browns, while the guy was in chinos and leather boat-shoes.

Xiaojun snapped a few shots and then he even got one where she turned her head just a bit, showing off that button nose, despite the chicken sauce blocking his view partially.

He was really doing his all here.

“Dejun, what are you doing? Are you stalking these people? We definitely have to talk about that!”

“No, mum! I know them.” he inspected the photos and considered asking Sicheng if they were officially dating despite Eleven’s continuous denial. But Sicheng was sort of intimidating in his own rights, so, he’d just ask Eleven when he got the chance - if he wouldn’t find out about it some other way before getting the chance to.

Maybe, they were now really happy together? That’d be so lovely! They really made a cute couple with the same height and all. If only Kun didn’t look like straight from the golf course...

“Dejun, if you’re not stalking them, I should at least inform you they’re coming our way.”

He looked up and, true to her word, they had made their choice and were slowly coming towards them, holding hands… oh, Xiaojun really hoped they were dating! How cute! 

“Eleven? No, haven’t heard of her since Friday. Why?” Guanheng looked over the edge of his social studies book with hawk-eyes.

“Oh, just because I think I saw her yesterday but I haven’t gotten an answer to my text yet. Maybe she hates me?” Xiaojun couldn’t hold a small sniffle and pushed his blanket deeper into his rucksack to close the zipper. He may or may not still be sad his mum had to leave to catch her flight.

“Aw. What did you write her? Did you do something bigoted?”

“No!” Xiaojun gasped and turned, “I only asked if she and Kun were dating now and, if they were, that they look so cute together.”

Guanheng’s worried expression turned into a smirk.

“Well, guess that’s it for the friendship.”

“What?” Xiaojun genuinely had been curious.

“Just kidding. Did she really not answer? Why did you even ask?”

“I saw her and Kun in town when I went out with my mum.”

Now, Guanheng was upright on his bed, book thrown aside.

“You what now?”

“Yeah, I even took a picture,” Xiaojun pouted. He pulled his phone out and realised it was five to six already, “I’ll send it to you via WeChat, I have to run or I’ll be late.”

“I need to see that. Where are you even going, do I need to inform the police at some point if you don’t return?”

“Nah, I’ll just watch Escape Room with Xuxi. Not sure how long that is but I’m quite sure there’s no reason to worry.” Xuxi had suggested it to cheer him up after him mother had left, which had been so sweet of him and Xiaojun had immediately accepted. He also liked thrillers, almost as much as action movies.

“Oh, so, you won’t come home?”

Xiaojun furrowed his brows while Guanheng raised his challengingly. 

“Well, it wasn’t supposed to be a sleep-over and I don’t think the film is that long.”

“Riiight,” Guanheng grinned, “Please remember to send me the photo, it’s urgent.”

Xiaojun threw his rucksack over his shoulder and nodded, “Won’t forget. Maybe you could ask Eleven if she hates me now? I’m willing to do anything to apologise for any offence I might have made,” he tried to make puppy eyes, the type he knew made Xuxi agree at the speed of sound.

“Yeah, yeah, I will, I will. If you have proof, she can’t pretend she’s unaware to what we’re talking about. I’m sure she’s just trying to pretend she doesn’t have a heart, that’s her shtick, you know?”

Xiaojun nodded and waved his roomie goodbye before flying out the door.

On his way across the square between the dorm buildings, he sent the incriminating evidence.

For a second, he hesitated.

Was this… exchanging blackmail material? Private information? Illegal??? 

Well, they had been on the street for everyone to see, they surely must be aware other people might leave their houses on Saturdays, too - right?

So, he hit send and didn’t worry about it anymore.

The buildings in the row Xuxi lived in were older than those Xiaojun and Guanheng’s room was in - thus the community showers and singles. They used to be doubles during the good old times where people had been hoarded in here like chicken in a laying battery.

Thankfully, those times were past now. 

There was a lonely nametag on the door reading 黃旭熙and Xiaojun knocked.

It took about as long as it usually did when Kun was the one opening the door and Xuxi looked down at him with a smile that might be the reason for 25% of global warming. Whew, Xiaojun definitely felt hot being on the receiving end, that was for sure.

“Hey, sorry I’m late, I didn’t fit my blanket into my rucksack.” Xiaojun apologised and Xuxi looked surprised but stepped aside to invite him in. The inside was about as big as expected - or rather as small. The desk was pushed against the outside wall, under the window, and there was no space for a chair, so one would have to sit on the mattress to use it. The closet’s lower drawers were out of use for a lack of room to open them. 

“Welcome to my humble home,” Xuxi spread his arms and Xiaojun nearly fell onto his bed because there was so little space to escape being hit.

“Nice. Thank you for having me,” he spotted the laptop already set up, the starting screen paused. “I feel like my blanket might have been better staying home.” the bed was bigger than his. Where he had 80 centimetres of mattress breadth, Xuxi had a scandalous 120 (but there was nothing else better about this room so it was only fair). And it was covered in different knitted quilted blankets.

“Non-sense, there’s still a lot of room, just throw it on there and get comfortable. What do you want to drink? I have water, water, water, or water?”

Xiaojun did as told and started unwrapping his blanked as he laughed.

“What an excellent selection of fine beverages! I’ll have the water then, please.” 

“Absolutely, coming right up,” Xuxi dove under the bed and produced two bottles. He left Xiaojun to crawl onto the blanket-fortress first and followed right after.

Even 120 cm of mattress were small when you share with a giant, it turned out.

Good thing Xiaojun didn’t mind a bit of touching while getting cozy in the blankets. The music and dark setting got them ready to face some serious gore. It'd be very appropriate to cuddle over a scary movie.

“Have you ever been to an escape room?” Xuxi whispered while the opening ran.

“No. Don’t think I’ll want to go after this,” Xiaojun returned. It was so nice and warm, this was great! Because the room was as tiny as it was, it was easy to get it dark and it almost felt like an actual cinema.

Well, only with a 15’’ screen, but details…

“Same,” Xuxi became quiet and Xiaojun found himself glued to the screen as the film really got started.

Only…

not fully.

Because despite the truly thrilling and gruesome plot, he couldn’t quite get immersed while he still felt Xuxi’s arm against his, shifting ever so slightly from time to time. It was just a bit of touching, what the hell? Whenever one of them took a sip of water and returned to the starting position, their hands brushed past each other and, if he was fully honest, it might be more thrilling than the murderous escape room.

Honestly, why weren’t they holding hands? Despite being distracted, the movie was still quite terrifying. Xiaojun could use a little bit of hand-holding, really. Especially from someone like Xuxi.

Actually, he could use that all the time, not only now, but that was a whole different topic.

Without hesitating until he got second thoughts, Xiaojun turned his hand so their palms were against each other and he could push his fingers between Xuxi’s, who immediately tightened the hold as if he had waited for it…?

Xiaojun looked at him from the corner of his eye and saw a big smirk on the other’s face, illuminated only by the blue light of the laptop.

His heart did this weird racing thing even though he was literally lying down and it wouldn’t become any less exhausting in this lifetime. Well, maybe it was due to the happenings on the screen which were still as terrifying as they were supposed to be.

It was a weird state where he was both on edge and weirdly soothed because he could squeeze Xuxi’s hand when it got too scary and Xuxi would draw circles on the back of his hand with his thumb, which was really lovely.

He found himself abandoning the plot to analyse how smooth Xuxi's skin was, wondering if he had an exfoliating routine like Guanheng. It was also really big. Which wasn't news in the slightest but feeling was different than seeing. Very different.

Xuxi, occasionally, seemed more focussed on Xiaojun's hand as well but neither of them made another move. What would the next move even be? Did two dudes usually hold hands over scary movies? 

Yeah, it was probably totally fine and many straights did this all the time.

When the credits rolled, Xiaojun felt almost sad even though he really didn’t need more suspense and fake-blood of the evening. He just didn’t want this to end, he didn’t want to leave, he wanted to keep basking in Xuxi’s body warmth and feel his skin tingle where they touched.

He carefully glanced over to see if Xuxi might feel inclined to just stay here for a bit longer, only to realise he was already looking his direction. Only the laptop screen helped light the room, but its light reflected in Xuxi’s eyes and made it clear they were on Xiaojun.

They really were so beautiful…

Xiaojun realised Xuxi was leaning closer. Slowly, so he could anticipate it. For a second, he didn’t understand what he’d need to do this for – was there something on his face?

Luckily, even the densest virgin would understand a hint as broad as the entire African continent.

There was this voice in his head that complained that this was another guy and that wasn’t how first kisses were in films. Xiaojun successfully ignored it because, excuse him, more handsome men, who’d also make amazing conversation partners and gym buddies, wouldn’t come.

He let his eyes fall shut when Xuxi was too close to still focus on his face without going cross-eyed, and a second later, he felt lips against his own.

Immediately, they started prickling and Xiaojun needed a second to comprehend what was happening. However, once his brain had caught up, it was all he could think about. Xuxi’s lips against his, moving slowly.

He knew they were still holding hands, however, that became a lot less interesting in lights of actual kissing going on.

Xiaojun carefully tried to mirror, so it wouldn’t be like kissing the wall, and Xuxi’s other hand was suddenly in his nape, pulling him a little closer and cradling his head. It felt so comfortable and safe, not even nearly as awkward as he had expected. It seemed quite natural, too. Or, maybe, he was doing this all wrong but he knew.

Really, the evening couldn’t get any better now, could it? Xiaojun’s hand found purchase on the crook of Xuxi’s elbow and just as he had decided this was great, comfortable, and could last forever, Xuxi licked over his lips and Xiaojun softly gasped, opening up.

It seemed to have been what Xuxi had planned to happen because Xiaojun suddenly felt his tongue and nearly squeaked and pulled away to ask for directions. However, Xuxi seemed to know where this was going and pulled him along on the way. Xiaojun had a rough understanding of French kisses and that, mixed with pure curiosity, helped him figure out how to push his own tongue against Xuxi’s.

The tingling of his lips, the heat running over his skin, was incomparable. Xiaojun needed to hold onto the arm under his hand to remind himself this was reality. Xuxi sucked on his lower lip and Xiaojun, embarrassingly, moaned a little because it just felt that good.

Xuxi pushed his hand up further to hook it into his hair and the slight pull on his scalp forced the next moan from Xiaojun, swallowed up by Xuxi’s lips on his.

They shifted around, mainly because Xuxi seemed to want to cage Xiaojun against the bed and press down on his… “Xuxi,” Xiaojun dug his fingers into the sweater, the name just a breathy gasp. He hadn’t even realised he had gotten hard. Now, it was impossible to ignore.

“Is this okay?” Another kiss before he could answer, “Are you comfortable?” another peck on his lips, “I’ve been dying to finally kiss you for weeks!”

“Dork, we only met a month ago.”

“Which is how long I wanted to kiss you for,” Xuxi reconnected their lips and pushed his tongue past the seam of Xiaojun’s again, leaving him breathless and brainless. Xiaojun decided if Xuxi got to feel him up, so did he. It wasn’t fair if he didn’t.

He used the hand that had been cutting circulation into Xuxi’s arm and let it travel down the other’s front. He felt Xuxi’s breath hitch, his kiss growing slower, sloppier. He was clearly on edge to see what Xiaojun would do, but he didn’t change anything else, so, it should be fine, right?

He had felt Xuxi’s dick before, more or less involuntarily, but today, it was different because it was under his hand and it was with purpose and Xiaojun was so turned on he found nothing but excitement in touching the other.

Xuxi broke their kiss, a small but deep moan leaving his lips. Xiaojun found this to be surprisingly easy, really. It might be bigger, but a dick was a dick, he knew what to do here.

Just.. was that what they were doing?

“Where is this headed?” he asked softly. This voice that complained over a lack of boobs and vaginas was back in his head, but there luckily also was this one that was greatly pleased by the muscle and dick instead, and it was far louder.

“Wherever you want,” Xuxi stared down at him, barely visible in the romantic laptop-lighting, but his eyes were full of… well, hope, trust, adoration, Xiaojun really couldn’t call it anything else.

“Yeah, so, my experience would turn out to be not as plentiful so… uh, no idea?” Xiaojun stilled and Xuxi slowly let his hand stroke over Xiaojun’s jaw, then his cheek, until he had his head angled up to kiss him again, slow and deep. Like Xiaojun’s every thought hadn’t already been on him.

Xiaojun squeezed his fingers where they had never once let go of each other’s hands.

When they broke apart, he couldn’t stop himself from placing small kisses to Xuxi’s jaw, wherever he could reach.

“I mean, I wouldn’t go all the way right away if you’ve never done that before.”

“Anal? Yeah, no, seems kind of… intimidating,” Xiaojun was honestly not prepared, in every sense.

“It’s at first, totally get that,” Xuxi’s fingers had slipped down his neck, over his chest, and were now sneaking under Xiaojun’s t-shirt, “Just, maybe, would you be comfortable taking this off?”

“You might become insecure,” Xiaojun giggled. He liked how his upper body had become more toned. There was even a six-pack forming. He could take his shirt off. He could also take Xuxi’s shirt off, right? And maybe his trousers and pants, yeah, that seemed like a brilliant plan!

“I can take the risk,” Xuxi smiled and leaned down to kiss him again, only now, his fingers started ghosting over his skin, exploring what was still hidden by the fabric of his shirt. Xiaojun had a hard time focussing on both, and his breathing became more shallow in anticipation, but he wasn’t scared.

Xuxi brushed over his left nipple and it felt just a little more intense than the rest of his body had. He repeated it, a little rougher this time, and Xiaojun nearly bit down on his tongue when it sent a spark of pleasure through him.

Spurred on, Xuxi broke their hands apart so he could push the other under his shirt as well, focussing on both sides at the same time. It was weird and good at the same time, Xiaojun found it hard to describe but he definitely would conduct further research how much he could turn himself on by playing with them.

Xuxi seemed satisfied with how distraught Xiaojun was from his current ministrations and finally hiked the t-shirt up and pulled it over his head, which Xiaojun willingly raised his arms for. Where it landed was unclear, but also irrelevant.

“Nice, I like the view,” Xuxi rasped and Xiaojun chuckled and pulled him back down to kiss before he reached down to grab the hem of Xuxi’s shirt and shoved it up. He considered exploring first, but from where he was on the low position in this situation, it seemed a bad angle and too much work. He could just do it once the clothing was off.

Xuxi looked quite surprised but let Xiaojun strip him.

Something glinted in the cold light and, what the hell, was that… “You have your nipple pierced? How did I never notice that?” Xiaojun reached up and carefully touched the bar. Yep, definitely a piercing, just like those all over Xuxi’s ears.

Xuxi made a choking noise and Xiaojun brushed over the dusty-pink skin through which the metal was pushed, feeling the other shudder under his fingers. “Wow, you’re sensitive,” Xiaojun muttered.

“Kinda… kinda the point. Of piercing them, I mean. I take them out for exercising, for safety. Like my… okay, oh Xiaojun, nrgh, cut me some slack, I can’t think,” Xiaojun giggled and circled his finger around the nipple, letting it catch on the metal just a bit once more and Xuxi moaned gutturally.

“Sorry, it’s just so hot,” Xiaojun admitted. He faintly remembered he used to have a filter for his mouth but god knew where that was now.

Xuxi gabbed his hand from doing mischief and pinned it to the bed, before kissing him again, all tongue and pure hunger now. It was definitely extremely hot and a major turn-on.

Xiaojun felt like there was still too much clothing in this situation, so he reached up to fumble with the string of Xuxi’s jogging pants. “Wait, uh, Xiaojun?”

He immediately halted his moves and blinked up at Xuxi.

“I mean, we don’t have to, right?”

“But I wanna,” Xiaojun blinked at him and Xuxi faltered at the speed light.

“Oh fuck, yeah, go ahead, do whatever, I was just… so you’re, you know,” Xiaojun nodded but he felt very comfortable where he was. On the contrary, this was so much better than expected, he hoped all his sexual experiences would be like this, with someone like Xuxi. Or with Xuxi. Who cared.

The soft fabric of the sweatpants easily slipped from Xuxi’s legs and Xiaojun got slight nerves now, but he also really didn’t want to stop, so, he found the shape of Xuxi’s hard length through the thin material of his underwear and rubbed it. Where the tip was straining against it, was a wet patch.

Xuxi had started to kiss his neck and Xiaojun felt him lick on the skin before he _sucked_ and Xiaojun moaned and arched up against him but he was too far away.

Xuxi let the skin go with a wet pop.

Xiaojun’s vision was a little blurry, more than it already had been from short-sightedness, and he blindly found Xuxi and finally got him closer again to kiss, but it just wasn’t enough. He was throbbing in need and all insecurity over size difference be damned.

“You gonna strip me?” he asked softly and Xuxi groaned and squeezed where his hands were on his jaw just a little too hard.

“Y-yeah? If you want?” Xuxi looked as nervous as him, which seemed reassuring.

“I want. My dick is so hard it hurts and it has for some time now,” Xiaojun explained in hopes of making them both a little less intimidated and awkward.

He succeeded. Xuxi chuckled and loosened his grip to pat his cheek playfully, “I can help you with that. Has anyone sucked your dick before?”

“N-no?” Xiaojun stuttered. Just the idea of Xuxi, oh heaven. Any brain cells left, had spontaneously fried themselves.

Xuxi’s smile became cocky and his hand was suddenly (or maybe not suddenly but Xiaojun’s brain had stopped working) on his dick, feeling it up through the fabric of Xiaojun’s own pants.

“Oh, I love your size, well, if you don’t mind?”

“Mind?” Xiaojun echoed, brain still offline, and tried extremely hard to hold his hips still.

“I’d like to suck you off, but only if you want? I’m good at this, promise,” Xuxi sounded like people had turned this down before? Which… why? How?

“Uuuuuh, yeah,” Xiaojun nodded, “Wait, condom!” He had not chosen a biology major to practice unsafe sex the first chance he got.

“Good you remembered…” Xuxi pulled away and crawled over Xiaojun, which meant he got a very clear view of his abs. And his dick.

Before he could have second thoughts about this and hand in his resignment, Xuxi was back on top of him, looking handsome and sexy and overall like a health risk to Xiaojun.

He pushed his hand right down the front of his pants, which Xiaojun hadn’t expected because he was an idiot. It was all a bit much, but also really awesome when Xuxi closed his fingers around the base of his cock and pulled up, “Uh, Xuxi.”

“Good?” Xuxi softly asked but his voice had this permanent raspiness to it now and it was incredibly hot.

“R-really,” Xiaojun gasped back, and somehow tried to be helpful in the process of stripping his pants but he doubted he was.

Whatever, at least they were gone.

Xuxi gave him a few more tugs and his hands felt so huge around his cock, it was somewhat both hot and embarrassing. Luckily, embarrassment had also been shrunk back because of the energy-saving mode his brain was currently working on in all parts but the one for sex, so it was easy to focus on how absolutely incredible it felt.

“Fuck, I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Xuxi muttered and this should be Xiaojun’s line, seeing how he was the straight person in the room, but okay.

“It’s because you’re too sexy,” Xiaojun muttered, unsure if he could ever recover from speaking without thinking, but it seemed like he was too far gone.

“Well, still didn’t expect to have this extent of an effect on you. Not like I mind. Can you open this?” Xuxi held the foil packet into Xiaojun’s face for a lack of free hands.

Xiaojun nodded and fumbled with it for a second until it realised he was the stronger and more determined party in this fight and ripped open.

The feeling of getting it put on was odd. Sure, he had practised on himself because he was a responsible adult, but now it was someone else doing it and Xuxi kept teasing him by stroking his fingers up the sides of his length when he really didn’t have to.

“If something feels bad, tell me,” he said and gave Xiaojun a final kiss before pushing himself down and Xiaojun wasn’t sure what the etiquette here was but he guessed holding still was all that was required.

Only, that suddenly became a much harder task than anticipated once Xuxi closed his lips around the tip of his dick and all Xiaojun wanted to do was buck up and have more of it. It seemed Xuxi had expected that because he was unable to even try because of the strong grip on his hips.

Xuxi sunk down at his own pace, slowly taking him deeper and deeper until he was almost at the base and moved up just as painfully slowly.

Xiaojun realised he was moaning but he didn’t care enough to stop and, really, Xuxi could know he felt fucking amazing.

It seemed like he did because he started to pick up the pace a bit and Xiaojun felt his tongue press against the underside of his cock, twirl over the tip, before he sunk back down. It was maddeningly good and lasting longer than two minutes was pure delusion at this point.

Xiaojun would just enjoy it while he could. He grabbed onto the blankets underneath and let himself fall apart, clinging to self-control only to the point of trying to stretch it on a bit more but he wasn’t regretful when his gut tightened and he came with a final moan, Xuxi slowing down to let it last without overwhelming him.

Xiaojun might have blacked out for a second or it might have been the laptop turning itself off due to inactivity. When the small bedside lamp came to life, he was just blissful but also felt a bit sticky and “You haven’t cum, get back here,” Xiaojun sounded like not even Bambi would fear him and Xuxi chuckled from where he was searching for something.

A moment later, he was back on the bed, next to Xiaojun, his water from earlier in hand which he took a generous swig of before pushing Xiaojun’s sweaty hair from his forehead.

“I wasn’t going to go anywhere, but no one needs a used condom in the bed,” he argues, voice incredibly low and velvety, and Xiaojun sighed at his unbeatable logic and pleasant tone, “you look like you’re already half-asleep.”

“No, I’m fine,” Xiaojun was definitely fighting drooping eyelids but what kind of ass would he be if he let Xuxi rock his world and then promptly fall asleep? He felt Xuxi’s muscle tighten under his hand but he was determined to get him off. He slipped past the waistband and pushed it down somewhat clumsily. Xuxi shuffled around and helped until his underwear was gone to wherever Xiaojun’s had.

It took him a moment until he had a good angle at which he could move his hand up and down the other’s cock. Well, this certainly was more exhausting than on himself because there was more ground to cover, but it was thick and hard and a bit stick from precum but that was also really awesome and Xiaojun wanted to do this forever, but Xuxi didn’t seem to share that wish. His own hand wrapped around Xiaojun’s and he picked up the pace, adding a bit of a twist upwards.

Xiaojun wanted to help him and he felt a little guilty for having been lazy, but he just felt so good and tired and Xuxi had such a great dick.

“Urgh, fuck,” Xuxi grunted and tightened around the base before he spilt over his stomach as he moaned so incredibly sexily.

Xiaojun watched the cum pool and make the hair sticky. He kind of wanted to taste it but that was a bad idea, with STDs and everything, so, he didn’t. He just waited while Xuxi cleaned up. A thought struck him and he started to crawl under the blankets without invitation. He really didn't want to leave, maybe, if he laid very still, Xuxi wouldn’t realise he was still here?

A moment later, a big arm wrapped around him from behind and he felt his back press into Xuxi’s front, the skin on skin just feeling safe and comfortable, not maddeningly arousing anymore. Well, didn’t seem like Xuxi had any objections to his bed getting seized. Xiaojun also really didn’t take up much space.

He was already half-asleep when he heard something about adorable cuties.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've nearly finished writing this and it'll be 11 or 12 chapters. If there's anything you NEED to happen, let me know so I can consider still putting it in ~

Luckily, Xiaojun’s phone had still 5% battery in the morning and he had a permanent alarm.

It didn’t mean he was any less running across the campus, back to his dorm, looking an utter mess because he had had to collect his clothes from all around Xuxi’s cell – excuse him – room and re-dress his unshowered self, no hairbrush or toothbrush available to help the situation.

But at least he hadn’t yet missed his first Monday class – Microbiology I, possibly the hardest subject.

He was still in a quite brilliant mood and it might have to do with waking up skin-on-skin in a tight embrace with Xuxi, who looked absolutely heartbreakingly cute with his ruffled hair and puffy eyes, and getting a good-morning kiss.

Did friends kiss each other good morning and giggled together before realising how late it was?

Probably, yeah.

Anyway, Xiaojun barged into his own room, already stripping himself because a shower was _not_ optional, only to see Guanheng on his bed, eyes wide as saucers, a lip-balm in hand.

“Morning,” Xiaojun flung his shirt to the ground and grabbed the first things in his drawers to throw on his bed and put on later.

“Morning. Holy cow, you actually stayed over to fuck? I was just joking when I said that. Xuxi sure has you wrapped around his finger, doesn’t he?”

Xiaojun’s face turned cosmopolitan pink and he rushed past his roommate into the bathroom.

“I don’t see how that’s your business.” With that, he slammed the door and dropped his pants and turned on the shower.

It felt good and relieving to get rid of any dirt still lingering. His morning wood was still half chub, but he very sternly didn’t think about Xuxi’s mouth on him (just kidding, of course he did, so, in his effort to just clean a bit of left-over cum, he ended up jacking off in another record-time session to thinking about Xuxi blowing him and how his cock had felt in Xiaojun’s hand, and how they had kissed and Xuxi had sucked on his tongue and… yeah, it had been quick).

Despite minor setbacks, Xiaojun finished within ten minutes total – excluding hair, he’d wear a hat, he didn’t have time for this shit.

However, when he wiped the mirror to see himself brushing his teeth (his dentist recommended that to ensure he didn’t miss a spot and his dentist would know, right?), Xiaojun nearly stumbled over backwards to knock himself out on the bathroom wall. He didn’t, luckily.

There, on his neck, were two love bites. Dark purple and big, impossible to miss – and impossible to hide!

Xiaojun leaned forward and pressed down on one, and it turned even darker.

Oh god, what? Why? How?

XUXI!

Xiaojun wished he could feel upset remembering how Xuxi had sucked and bitten the soft skin here and he, like a dumb-dumb, hadn’t had any objections because he hadn’t made the connection to what would linger for days after. He liked these….

Wait, was this gay? Was he gay?

Nah, surely, there were lots of straight people enjoying the same things. He liked girls! He liked boobs and stuff, really.

He just happened to like cock, too. Totally straight.

Xiaojun concluded three minutes of brushing red to white and another minute of flossing before he dried himself off and put on underwear, wrapping his towel around his neck to keep the hickeys save from nosy roommate-eyes.

“You realise I already saw Xuxi marked you up when you ran around like a lizard that lost its tail?” Guanheng was almost ready to leave, shrugging on his jacket before he started to search through the collection of shoes flying around everywhere.

“Well, fine, do you have tips on how to hide it then?” Xiaojun pulled the towel off and hung it up to dry. He had done things with Xuxi, might as well admit to them. There wasn’t anything about it, was there? He had enjoyed himself and he certainly would do this again given the chance, so why hide and feel guilty?

“Either concealer or a scarf. Gotta go, I have a class with mandatory attendance first. See you later, lover-boy,” Guanheng waved elegant fingers before the door fell shut behind him.

Xiaojun glanced at the clock and picked up his pace. He had no clue what a concealer might be and he really didn’t have the time to find out about mysterious Guanheng-items right now, so, he opted for a scarf and the tale of a sore throat.

“A sore throat? Did you have some tea? It helps miracles,” Xuanyi leaned over the table and put a hand to Xiaojun’s forehead, taking his temperature.

“Uh…. yeah, not for lunch.” Xiaojun felt quite bad for lying. His mum had always emphasised it was bad to do so and he knew it was. He couldn’t go and say, oh, I had sex with our mutual friend and he left me with huge hickeys. We’re not dating or anything, though. And I’m straight. It’s just casual.

Right? It was just casual, wasn’t it?

Anyway, Meiqi needed the break to rant about one of her professors, which, thankfully, took the attention off him and his possible anything between a flu and the plague that caused the ‘sore throat’. Xiaojun listened attentively and nodded whenever it felt appropriate. He found her complains very understandable, of course. Even if he hadn’t, Xiaojun would support her because she was his friend. Hopefully. Meiqi was really confident and smart and would fight for what she believed in even if she was swimming against the current, which Xiaojun found extremely admirable.

If, in the future, he found himself victim to anything that’d require hiring a lawyer, he’d go to her first. He definitely wanted to be her friend.

When Sicheng joined them, she was done and announced she was feeling better, which was great. Sicheng gracefully sat down across the table from Xiaoju and fixed him with dark elf-eyes as a smirk danced over his lips.

“So. Did you hear the news?”

Immediately Xuanyi and Meiqi both turned his direction, expectant like vultures circling a dead elephant.

“N-no?” Xiaojun felt like the elephant in the situation when they followed Sicheng’s gaze and their eyes landed on Xiaojun.

“Well, Eleven was going to post about it in the group chat but I feel like you deserve to hear it early, seeing how your photo evidence saved us all months of denial. Also, I’m the one constantly getting thrown out because of their horny asses, so I might as well tell: she and Kun are making it official. Fucking finally, it really took them over a year to get to this point.”

Xiaojun nearly squealed in excitement. That was so lovely, they were so cute together!

Also, did Eleven maybe not hate him? That’d be awesome…

Wait, oh dear good, sweet Jesus, did that mean their very motivated tutor would become part of the regulars table and… and go… go out to party with them?

In his golfer-dad outfit?!

How had he not thought ahead to this?

Oh, right, that’d require planning. Xiaojun wasn’t known for doing that.

Xuanyi clapped in excitement and then raised her bottle of coke, “We will have to drink to that on Saturday. Our little wild child, finally happy with her Prince Charming. Oh my, cute couples and happy endings always leave me so emotional,” she sniffled and took a swig like this was soju. Xiaojun felt the need to do the same to get to terms with possibly facing Kun during low moments with bad decisions and too much alcohol. He wasn’t sure he could do that. Maybe, he’d ditch drinking and become a god-obeying, chastise citizen?

Then again, obviously, Kun was not waiting for marriage to have sex either. Xiaojun still vividly remembered the moan from that night of chasing Kun off and, happy ending with Prince Charming or not, it was enough to get a little aroused from because it had been _that_ hot.

“Say, Xiaojun, why are you wearing a scarf?” Sicheng furrowed his brows in adorable confusion. Great, Xiaojun was starting to have a serious surprise-boner situation here because immediately after moaning, now he was thinking of Xuxi’s deep velvet voice and hands and mouth and dick…

“Sore throat,” the lie already came easier the second time.

“Oh! I recommend lemon with honey, it works miracles!”

“Thank you,” and here he was, feeling like the worst person ever again. Maybe, he could discuss what last night had been and what it would mean for the future with Xuxi? Because, obviously, they weren’t dating seeing how Xiaojun was straight, but he also didn’t feel like this had to be a secret but it also kinda did and…

It was all very confusing but not confusing enough to regret or not want to repeat it.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, when Xiaojun left his last class of the day, Xuxi was waiting in the hallway, gaining quite a bit of attention. It was understandable, Xuxi looked 2,000 out of 10 just rolling out of bed. Everyone should feast their eyes on him, Xiaojun fully understood and encouraged it. 

“Hey, Xiaoxiao,” Xuxi beamed and Xiaojun went from feasting to near cardiac arrest. What was with that cute nickname? “I brought you matcha latte, re-useable cup and all,” Xuxi pushed a blue tumbler into his hand and Xiaojun stared at it, failing to compute.

“Thank you.” At least basic politeness was still up and functional. It was always the last to go, he hoped his mum was proud of him.

They started heading down the hallway (the correct one, that one to the door and not to the seminary rooms. Big difference.).

“I read you have a sore throat. Do you want to skip working out and hang out instead?”

But his muscle mass gains… Wait, what sore throat even?

“I don’t have a sore throat!” Xiaojun mumbled, keeping his voice down. He sipped some of the drink to give him strength but it lacked alcohol – oh no. Did he already have an alcohol problem now?

Damn, he had tried to avoid it so hard!

“No?” Xuxi’s hand brushed his and Xiaojun had some complaints here, but he realised people wouldn’t take well to two dudes holding hands even if it would be purely platonic.

Xiaojun wordlessly raised the scarf to show Xuxi the incriminating evidence and the other sucked a sharp breath in. Xiaojun dropped the fabric back down and took another sip of matcha. It was really good, probably from his favourite café, the one with the comfy pillow-sofa. Xuxi knew he loved their drinks the most. And he had gone out of his way to get him some… this was the sweetest thing ever.

“Well…” Xuxi cleared his throat, but he looked absolutely unremorseful and more like he’d leave more if given the chance, right here, right now.

The bad news was… Xiaojun would let him, “It’s fine, next time, don’t leave them as far up, okay?”

Wait, next time? What was he even sprouting here? STOP!

“Can’t make any promises,” Xuxi airily returned, not facing Xiaojun’s small glare as his cheeks turned pink.

“If you don’t, I’ll get revenge.”

“That’s okay,” Xuxi’s voice was just a whisper now and he sidestepped. Xiaojun could only assume how far down the gutter his thoughts were if he needed to adjust his pants. He said this as if he hadn’t had a hard-on after lunch because he had day-dreamt about Xuxi.

“Anyway, I asked Guanheng for the make-over and since I didn’t want to miss lab on Friday, I’ll have to ditch you on Thursday for gym. Sorry. Which also means we _have_ to go today.” Xiaojun was just going to move fast enough so no one would see the hickeys – easy peasy.

“Aw, okay, but text me and send me lots of pics?” Xuxi pouted and Xiaojun chuckled.

“I will, if I remember. Shopping’s not that interesting, is it?”

“Urgh, you sound so straight saying that. Of course, it is! Can I text Guanheng some suggestions?”

Xiaojun perked up.

“You have suggestions? Which are?” he could take them personally, then decide if they were good suggestions and relay only those to Guanheng.

“I’m not going to tell my little fashion terrorist. I’ll take that as a yes, then.” Xuxi squeezed his cheek and Xiaojun let him, still hung up where he was _Xuxi’s_ little fashion terrorist…

"Fine, but may I remind you who wore pretty much partner-look on the first day?"

"Couple look!" Xuxi cheered and held the gym door open for Xiaojun."Only I wasn't lost in early 2000s swagger vibes."

Xiaojun really hadn't seen much of a difference but he didn't feel like arguing.

“Speaking of, I saw such a great documentary on the robbery of Egyptian artefacts during the 19th century and the Egypt hype in Western Europe,” they had arrived at the changing room and Xiaojun put down his bag next to Xuxi’s.

“Oh, that’s a can of worms to open,” Xiaojun unwrapped his scarf and stripped his regular tee. He picked his change one up and noticed Xuxi was staring. Xiaojun slapped his new t-shirt into his face, feeling a bit of heat rise, “Focus!”

“What? I wasn’t doing anything,” Xuxi muttered but turned away with red ears, rubbing his face. “Where was I? Ah, yes, can of worms, you’re right there, the more you look into how many pieces museums in Egypt are missing because they’re somewhere in England or France or Germany, it’s really sad. Not only them, though. They even have an exhibition in Greece where they call out the British museum for stealing a Caryatid from the Acropolis. It’s like the gold the soldiers picked from the forbidden city. Ah, so many instances where priceless pieces of history and culture were treated terribly.”

“I think it’s sad, but it’s also human nature. Many mistakes made during old excavations, for example, are extremely sad and upsetting but just happened due to a genuine lack of knowledge,” Xiaojun closed his locker and pulled the key, which he wrapped around his wrist.

Xuxi was still shirtless and Xiaojun’s eyes caught on the left nipple, looking perfectly normal… “Say, why did you only get one side done?” he asked and Xuxi poked a very confused face from the t-shirt, then hiding away beautiful tan skin stretching over his sculpted chest.

“What? One side? Of what? Egyptian documentaries…?”

Xiaojun chuckled and shook his head, “No pierced! Is it to balance the helix?”

“In that case, wouldn’t it have to be on the right?” Xuxi raised an eyebrow and closed his locker as well, so they could march into the holy halls and get moving on the treadmills.

“That doesn’t make sense – you have your left ear pierced, so, it should be your left nipple, right?”

“But how would that balance?” Xuxi still didn’t seem on board with Xiaojun impeccable logic, but he faltered when Xiaojun blinked up at him, which had become such a useful skill, really, “Okay, whatever, my plan was to do both but I chickened out after the first. Not that much into pain…”

Xiaojun could understand the issue. He didn’t even dare consider getting his ears pierced. He also didn’t see any reason to because he had no desire to get hung up over earrings. They looked pretty on Xuxi, though. He was glad Xuxi had this tendency to like cute things and dress prettily or pay attention to decoration and scents. It was charming and added so wonderfully to how masculine he was in many other ways.

On Wednesday, Meiqi came into the cafeteria in a dream of soft pink hair, her checked shirt matching the colour on her head. Xiaojun watched at least three guys fall in love – though it would be futile for them, unfortunately.

“You look so good!” Xiaojun beamed once she had sat down next to Chengxiao and Meiqi threw the strands over her shoulder, only for them to get stuck in her collar. She cursed.

After a moment of struggling, she had figured it out and huffed.

“Thank you, Eleven’s black magic. I almost fainted when I saw, I’m quite sure she sold her soul to some demon at one point or another. Probably in turn for that ski-slope nose, too.”

“I’m sure that’s what happened,” Chengxiao rolled her eyes playfully.

“Anyway, I changed my profile pic and suddenly had three dudes in my dms, which, ew, gross, and five girls, which all made up for the guys. Five! I should have done this earlier, I’m even writing with one of them. I’m already planning our wedding.”

“Okay, glad you’re taking your time with things,” Chengxiao laughed and Xiaojun wondered if he might be invited. He could show off how broad his shoulders had gotten in a suit wonderfully. He had to remind Guanheng that these gains were absolutely necessary to show off on the weekend.

“Well, with everyone getting boyfriends, I’m suddenly feeling lonely and in need of a cute girl to kiss and cuddle at night, as well as have sit on my face.”

“And you don’t already do that with Xuanyi?” Chengxiao offhandedly asked while Xiaojun tried to find someone, other than Eleven, who had found a boyfriend? No one came to mind, but it might just be a friend of Meiqi’s he didn’t know. She was basically friends with every girl in her department, or so he had heard. Surely, there had been a new couple there recently, that made sense, of course.

“Yeah, but, Xuanyi and I are friends. She doesn’t like me that way.”

Judging from Chengxiao’s reaction, she had some insider information that Xuanyi, in fact, did like her that way, but she didn’t say so.

Interesting.

Also on Wednesday, Xiaojun came to pick up his blanket from Xuxi’s dorm, where he had left it in his hurry on Monday. He ended up first obediently watching a performance from NCT Dream and being puzzled about the Korean language, and then, in a turn of events, they were suddenly kissing again and it was pretty great because Xiaojun felt like he kind of already knew what he was doing and he had also secretly hoped for this to happen.

Because they were already going there, he also managed to give Xuxi a much better handjob than on Sunday because he wasn’t half-asleep during the process.

Turned out Xuxi also gave pretty good handjobs, and once he was back at the dorm, Guanheng smirked and drew his attention to a cum stain on his shirt.

Thank god he had only rushed across campus and no one should have seen him. Hopefully.

Well, he could always say it was mayo, so, whatever.

And then, the shopping spree was ahead and when Xiaojun left his class and saw not only Guanheng, but also Eleven _and_ Sicheng, in the hallway, he knew they hadn’t come to play.

Why was Sicheng here?

“Sicheng never leaves our room because he ditches lectures and I think he might have vitamin D deficiency and also potentially turn into a mummy before Saturday and his forcible extraction from the dorm, so, I brought him,” Eleven chirped and Xiaojun tried to make himself appear taller than her but he just wasn’t and she had small heels which left him in the dust completely.

“I go to practice,” Sicheng pointed out but he didn’t insist on being acknowledged when Eleven and Guanheng had already moved to the next topic, _the_ topic.

“So, outfits. I got some requests from a certain boyfriend, so, we better get going and save this… baggy-pants-basketball-t-shirt situation going on here. I’ve been waiting for this day all my life, saving a cute boy from his own sense of fashion,” Guanheng announced and Xiaojun wanted to ask when he had gotten a boyfriend and if he’d introduce him but it was like a landslide when Guanheng and Eleven got moving, even though it was just four people in total. They were just big personalities that made everything seem out of proportion to Xiaojun’s head.

“Do you not mind coming?” Xiaojun softly asked Sicheng, who looked like he regretted every single life-choice up to this point and, frankly, hated his life.

“No, I don’t. Why should I? I enjoy hanging out with friends,” Sicheng looked surprised.

“Oh. Okay, good. You looked like you didn’t so I was just wondering,” Xiaojun admitted.

“That’s just my face,” Sicheng announced and softly smiled. God, he really was so cute when he didn’t look like he despited earth and all her creatures, wasn’t he? Xiaojun felt the need to protect him again… “I also know how to reign Eleven back in and there might be the need for that. I’m glad she and Guanheng get along so well, but I also fear for you.”

Xiaojun hadn’t been scared until now, but Sicheng’s words let him reconsider his choice of shopping-experts and… yeah, he probably should be scared.

Too late now.

They entered a gigantic mall that Xiaojun hadn’t know was there - but he had also not left campus other than going a) to party and b) to the art district with his mum.

Sicheng got himself a ridiculously big coffee and only joined them again when Xiaojun was already groaning under the weight of countless pieces of clothing, half of which he didn’t even know the purpose of, but Eleven and Guanheng weren’t stopping yet. Even the sales lady had fled behind the counter after a bit. She was probably scared, too. Xiaojun was scared for her and her shop. It might not survive this.

“Xuxi said he looks good in green.”

“I’m saying skinny jeans.”

“Sleeves!”

“Pattern!”

“V-neck!”

“Cold colours!”

“Faux-leather!”

“Ankle boots!”

Xiaojun decided to let his brain go into stand-by and just follow. He had voiced complaints about the second, or so, piece (because it looked like it might have fit 7-year-old him). He had gone ignored. He had learnt his lesson and not tried again. It was useless and he had literally asked for this.

The music was nice. He recognised Lu Han and his scandalous lyrics – heavily censored but he had read the original ones. He wished he could blow people like a flute. He had felt so good and he wanted to make Xuxi feel good in turn and it seemed somewhat exciting to use his mouth for that.

More and more articles on clothing were added and Sicheng was stuck on his phone, the tiny smile permeated onto his face. Maybe, he was texting the mysterious boyfriend in far-away Japan? Xiaojun had no hand free to text Xuxi, which was unfortunate but also great for his work-out. He was ditching the gym but his biceps were straining under masses of clothes.

“Okay, try on,” Guanheng suddenly ripped him from his meditational space.

“What?”

“The clothes. Chop-chop,” Eleven directed him the direction of the change-rooms and Xiaojun obediently waddled over. However, the second he had everything on the different hooks (which looked ready to break under the weight but he couldn’t help them), he realised the main issue here and poked his head out the curtain.

“What goes together?”

Guanheng had just accepted some kind of pink beverage from Sicheng but immediately got back up from the armrest of Eleven’s chair.

“How could I have forgotten,” he sighed and pushed Xiaojun back inside only to follow right after.

“Excuse me?”

“I’ll take care of that. Strip!”

“Ex_cuse me_?”

“Nothing I haven’t already seen. I’m not going to spontaneously develop a crush on you now, don’t worry.”

“I can dress myse- okay, fine,” Xiaojun realised resistance was futile and started taking off his comfortable, safe clothes to face his make-over.

He was sure his legs had started to chafe half-way through trying on about one million pairs of trousers made from every material known to mankind and in every cut ever invented, but it was fine because…

Damn.

He looked hot.

He had never realised that normal fitting trousers would actually make his legs look longer. Now, he realised how short they had looked wasn’t due to them actually being, but due to the baggy cut taking away 25% of leg-length.

He didn’t think too highly of the skinny type those were… something else. They sure made his thighs look impressive and also suggested he packed more than he actually did, but it was too much like a second skin and because of that, Xiaojun felt too naked. But just straight cut ones… damn. He’d take five, please, he’d pay with his kidney. Thank god he hadn’t lost that at Regular the first night.

He also hadn’t realised fitted t-shirts would let him look bigger because it no longer seemed like he was drowning in his clothes. He would even give up tank-tops because he could see how they made him appear like he was just trying way too hard. How had he never realised this before?

It was a day full of enlightenment, Eleven pulling on clothing and pushing her hand places it did _not_ belong, and Guanheng nodding like a generous king praising his most hard-working servant.

Sicheng complimented his arms, which very much added to Xiaojun’s motivation to get through 1001 outfits, and Eleven said he looked a lot less twink-y in proper clothing and she was sorry she had ever doubted he worked out.

Which reminded Xiaojun had hadn’t looked up what a twink was yet.

He left with far more than what he’ ever be able to wear for one night of clubbing and knowing he wasn’t going to be able to buy the National Geographic magazine or food for at least four weeks because there was hardly any money left on his bank account.

Whatever, at least he’d look nearly as good and buff as Xuxi from now on and his cafeteria meal plan was paid for by his father so he wouldn’t starve.

He might even turn heads on Saturday.

Speaking of… what would Xuxi be wearing?

Xiaojun only realised he had forgotten to make true of his promise to send pictures when they had sat down and ordered plenty of food that Xiaojun would fight just a little less to pay for later because he really couldn’t afford it right now.

He texted Xuxi with deep and honest apologies and a lot of emojis. Luckily, he answered it was fine and he’d see in two days, anyway. So, that was good.

Xiaojun even remembered to withdraw a bit of cash (really just a few shy bills because, again, impending insolvency) on their way back to the dorm.

Once he was showered, he knocked out on his bed.

Shopping was absolutely exhausting.

“Holy shit! Who’s this hot, fine gentleman?” Xuxi dragged his eyes up and down Xiaojun, who felt like the other had laser vision and grilled him while doing so.

“It’s just clothes,” Xiaojun dropped his bag and unpacked the print-out for today’s class.

“But very nice clothes, you look good,” Xuxi smiled widely and grabbed his upper thigh to squeeze like that’d give his words more weight.

In reality, it only let Xiaojun wish he was touching even higher but this was a lab and there were safety rules to follow. Moving on.

“Thanks,” Xiaojun grunted and flipped the page only to realise the printer must have run out of toner half-way down, where it faded into white on white.

“I have it,” Xuxi seemed to have realised the issue, “I also looked up what would be good for fragrance and bought some scented oils. Do you prefer vanilla or rose?”

Xiaojun blinked at the other blankly and Xuxi dramatically sighed, “Okay, forget I asked, we’re doing rose then because I like rose,” which was perfectly fine with Xiaojun, he liked whatever Xuxi liked and he liked how Xuxi usually smelt of flowers.

Xiaojun collected the heating plate and pot while Xuxi got a mixer and made small talk with the TA. Xiaojun already unwrapped the vegetable-fat the university was generously providing them all. Normally, they could freely choose what to do. But one of the really social and reputable clubs was doing a really social and reputable market-thing where they needed to sell something student-made.

So, they were making soaps.

Xiaojun wasn’t opposed and Xuxi had even been excited, which had made Xiaojun even less opposed, in favour even. He also planned to use the 20 minutes of stirring with the mixer as a tiny-work-out. Perfect and effective time-usage.

He turned the plate on and placed the pot on top into which he let the lump drop. A moment later, the fat already started to melt and he nodded in happiness before looking for his lab partner.

“Xuxi,” he called and the other ended his small talk and came over.

“Sorry. Did you know we had bromine available to experiment with? Crazy shit, right?”

“Bromine?” Xiaojun’s eyebrows rose, “That’s super toxic _and_ acridly.”

“Yep, almost as dangerous as these,” Xuxi flexed his arms and Xiaojun was reminded of his douchy lab partner in chem-lab I. He might need to remind him that his very much gay friend also had more interest in the dangerous activities and not the “gay” ones, but that’d require he talk to him and Xiaojun avoided that.

Ever since telling on him to the TA, the other had been extremely uptight. But he did his work and Xiaojun didn’t care there was a rumour he was gay now. Because, while he was straight, there was no reason to take offence to being called gay.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Xiaojun patted his arm and, god, yes, these were some dangerous guns… nope, not going there, there were lab rules! LAB RULES! “But we have rose soap to make.”

“Yeah, but, you know, next week?” Xuxi grinned and Xiaojun mentally prepared himself to get a nice bromine poisoning in the near future.

He watched the fat fully melt and carefully stirred a little, when a scream ripped through the room, followed by feet shuffling right on the working station next to theirs.

“Spider!” one of the girls gasped and Xiaojun’s interest was suddenly off the plant fats and on possible cute spiders? He still missed Cinderella so much, he petted every eight-legged creature not fleeing fast enough from his love.

“Xuxi, please, can you take care of that?” One of them pleaded, but when Xiaojun turned, Xuxi had also moved as far away from the source of horror and looked rather pale.

“Uuuuh…”

Xiaojun walked past the girls towards the station, “Where is it?” he asked, looking for movement.

“Th-there,” someone pointed at the ground and…

“Aw, cutie, you’re so tiny,” Xiaojun cooed and kneeled down to pick the small arachnid up. Silence spread over the room while he carefully closed his hands to avoid losing the small thing.

He turned to the terrified audience, “It’s really small and cute, don’t you want to keep it?”

“No!” was the answer, which sealed tiny spider’s fate to be set free in the big wide world just outside the window.

Xiaojun was slightly sad to see it go, but it surely was happy out there, free…

He watched it leave before he returned to his work-station and steaming experiment. They might want to do something about that, actually. Why was Xuxi just staring at him?

“So. In the future, I’ll call you whenever I have spiders in my dorm room,” the other announced while Xiaojun hurried to stir their concoction before it exploded or something equally terrifying.

“Sure. I love spiders! I have a pet tarantula, she’s the cutest thing ever, haven’t I told you about her?” Xiaojun was relieved to find out nothing had burnt yet.

“N-n-no, I only knew of the snakes?” Xuxi sounded not as excited as Xiaojun had hoped but that was fine. He’d show him his spider was the most adorable and gentle creature ever.

“Oh, they’re great, too. But I don’t own any just for myself, I have Cinderella. She’s the best, I just miss her.” He sighed. His mum occasionally sent pictures, his step-dad a bit more frequently, but it wasn’t the same.

“I think we need the solution in here now,” Xuxi announced and Xiaojun nodded before picking the pre-measured chemicals from their table-top, “So, I was thinking about the snakes because I’m just a little intimidated if I’m fully honest, but now there’s spinders, too, and I think I need a class on those.” Xuxi announced as he picked up the electric mixer. Xiaojun slowly poured the liquids into the fat which stopped the bubbling and steaming but didn’t really change much else. It was a bit anti-climatic, unlike their conversation.

“Of course! I’ll tell you everything!” Xiaojun was excited to talk about their family pets, “I wish I had one of them with me because that makes it easier, but it’s fine. I’ll show you photos, lots of them. Really, they’re hardly different from a bunny or something.”

“Yeah. Only they eat the bunny,” Xuxi raised an eyebrow, not looking in-love yet.

“We don’t own any that big, the biggest we can do is a small rat.”

“Doesn’t really make it any better in my head,” Xiaojun tried to take the mixer from Xuxi, but it seemed the other had the same plans of using it for work-out. Damn it.

“Hm. Okay, well, then let’s talk about our garter snake, he’s quite small and so adorable. He also eats a quite big variety of foods, like, fish? Or worms, he likes those. Wait! I have a photo, just a second.”

So, while Xuxi mixed the soon-to-be-rose-soap, Xiaojun first introduced Yue Fei (named because his step-dad was into the old kings and the Song dynasty in particular), then their corn snakes Pikachu (named because of his colouring) and Xueye (also due to her colouring).

He explained that they normally didn’t bite and that the corn snakes only had to eat on a weekly basis and all three could climb around their cage, for which they had built fake stones, but they wanted their own homes because they were as sociable as Sicheng or Xiaojun with strangers.

He also explained how to handle them and how especially the corn snakes would often just wrap around your arm and chill for hours while you went about your day but Yue Fei was a bit more squirmy and harder to keep in check, especially since he was smaller and would likely be gone forever if given the chance.

Xuxi seemed to warm up to the idea and agreed to at least see a photo of Cinderella when Xiaojun carefully suggested it

“She doesn’t seem scary when you call her Cinderella,” he mumbled while Xiaojun looked for his favourite where you could see her adorable eyes and little fangs. Or, maybe, that looked rather scary. Okay, one with lots of cute fuzzy legs then!

“Look! She’s so cute, look how soft and fluffy she is! She’s not scary at all and she cuddles when you let her. Of course, I had to call her Cinderella because she’s kind and warmhearted but also misunderstood because someone decided to bad-talk her. Just compare it to sharks, though it’s even worse for them, obviously!”

Xuxi looked just a little bit pale and nodded slowly, “I mean, I’d have to get used to her for sure but… yeah man, if you like her so much I’ll try to get along.”

“Thank you! Okay, I have more photos of her, ignore me, just look how cute she is, really tame!” Xiaojun excitedly showed the photo where he had her on his head, on his shoulder, even the one where he had taken a teeny-tiny trip through his neighbourhood to show her around.

It seemed like Xuxi didn’t focus much on Cinderella and more on Xiaojun but that was fine, he was sort of flattered he did.

Their alarm ringing put an end to showing off pet photos and Xuxi slowed the mixer to inspect.

“Looks like gunk. And it smells… sort of bad.” Xiaojun pulled away from where he had just done a very not-chemically-correct sniff-test, the one where he just pushed his entire nose toward the source of the scent.

Xuxi mirrored him and frowned, “Well… let’s hope the rose is stronger.”

Their TA stopped by their table and looked at their questionable substance.

Xiaojun worried to hear her approval.

“Oh, yours got pretty homogenous. Good job. What do you plan to add?” Xiaojun immediately grew by at least 2 micrometres in pride even though he had not helped mixing for a single second – he would have, had Xuxi let him. His arms already were big enough he didn’t even need more training. On the other hand, his arms also needed a lot of maintenance and Xiaojun would be quite sad to see them go…

“We were planning to add essential rose oil and I also have pink clay for colour. I brought some pedals for aesthetics if those are allowed to be added?” Xuxi asked and Xiaojun felt his eyebrows rise slowly.

Well, lucky for him he had someone with an eye for things like that.

“Wow, that’s so thoughtful, great job! Of course, you can add them,” their TA looked thoroughly impressed and a bit like she was starting to crush on Xuxi. Xiaojun knew the look because Xuxi had the effect on girls – and Meiqi had it on guys.

He was inclined to tell her Xuxi identified as 95% gay, but there wasn’t really any reason, he wasn’t his boyfriend or anyone else who had any sort of reason to be jealous. So, he just watched as Xuxi worked his magic on other people and swooned in the privacy of his own head where no one could judge him.

“Well, I also have vanilla in case someone’s short?” Xuxi announced.

“Yes! The guys over there didn’t bring anything – typical. Remember to hand in the bill, right? The club will reimburse you.”

Xiaojun watched their alleged soap slowly turn pink and then slowly start to smell heavenly. It was like magic.

They spread it over the moulds the club had prepared for them, to ensure evenly sized soap bars in cute shapes, and added the rose pedals.

“I feel upset we don’t get to keep these,” Xuxi muttered and eyed the moulds like he contemplated stealing a batch.

“You could buy some of them, you know? We didn’t pay for material, after all.”

“Yeah but the market is the week after next and my parents will visit, so, I don’t think I will have time. Oh, speaking of, my mum said she had a friend who had a friend who had a friend who ran a restaurant here and it’s supposed to be good, so, maybe there’s still hope to get acceptable Thai food here? We should check it out some time, don’t you think?”

Xiaojun nodded but realised he would only get to go to fancy-pantsy Thai restaurants once his savings had recovered from his shopping. And after getting so many coffees and matcha lattes from Xuxi, he felt guilty going into it and knowing he’d let him pay.

They started cleaning up their working space and Xiaojun realised they were some of the last students still present. When he stacked their soaps to let them set, he got the thought it was because they had kind of over-achieved with them.

Well, Xuxi had.

Xiaojun nibbled on his lower lip. The market would be on Sunday during the uni’s open campus for interested 12th years from school. He didn’t have anyone visiting and the only reason why he couldn’t make it would be laziness and wanting to sleep in. He also couldn’t show up in his pyjamas because there’d be people other than fellow students, who’d get it or wear the same, present. Just rolling out of bed and going wouldn’t quite cut it.

Seeing how much work had gone into them and how genuinely sad Xuxi had, rightfully, seemed over not getting to keep them… it would be worth the effort, wouldn’t it?

Xiaojun marked his calendar before going back to scrub down their table.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his ass. He turned and was about to smack someone for seriously overstepping, but came face to face with Xuxi, who had leaned in to the point of their noses nearly touching.

“Your ass looks even better in these, do you have plans for the evening or would you like to visit my humble home for some further studies regarding your backside?”

Xiaojun’s eyes were likely to pop out of their sockets and bounce against his glasses. “You… you’re shameless!” he hissed and turned to check on their TA but she was in the back, possibly playing with bromine, who knew.

“So? Is that a yes? It sounds like a yes but I prefer enthusiastic and clear consent.”

“It’s a yes,” Xiaojun couldn’t believe he was now agreeing to shameless booty calls?

Wait, wasn’t this sort of… non-straight?

Nah, it was probably fine, right? People surely did this all the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	6. Chapter 6

It was the third time that Xiaojun waddled across campus re-dressed and feeling in need of a shower but grinning like some idiot because he had cuddled and kissed Xuxi first thing waking up and felt great. It was the second time this walk of shame was on the morning after and today, he wasn’t even alone. He saw a girl that looked in far more of a hurry than he was, so it felt like he had company.

Guanheng was still passed out and Xiaojun really took his time to shower and brush his teeth - though he now had a toothbrush at Xuxi’s so he at least hadn’t been a complete caveman and brushed in the evening.

He had really needed it after having tried (and 75% failed) to suck Xuxi’s dick.

Seriously, it had seemed easy when Xuxi had done it, it had sounded doable in the article he had read in preparation but the real thing had been a mess of aching jaw, too much teeth, choking, and saliva running down his chin.

Xuxi had done his all to talk him through it and had been very patient. Only his cocky grin and apology that his dick was just big and maybe not that easy to get started on had gotten him a pinch on his pierced nipple.

Quite unexpectedly, Xiaojun had figured out he could put his mouth to much better and more effective use on that because Xuxi really was just that sensitive. Playing with a small metal bar that he could push his tongue against over and over was just a whole lot easier and how to use his hands was not something he needed teaching in even if the dick was bigger and not his own.

Seeing Xuxi fall apart in a complete mess of moans and clutching to the sheets had been a rush. Xiaojun had thoroughly committed the image to memory for later use and was hopeful for a repetition.

Maybe, he’d even figure the whole blowjob situation out because after he had recovered, Xuxi had demonstrated quite impressively how to really give head. God, it had been so good, maybe even better than the first time. Xiaojun had felt him press down just behind his balls, which had let his mind go to entirely different (still slightly intimidating) possibilities but also felt _so damn good_, that he was quite sure Xuxi’s neighbours also must have known what was going on. The walls weren’t that thick.

He was a little sorry because they all must be very jealous, but also not really sorry enough.

After, they had made non-crunchy ramen and watched the first Transformers where Xiaojun (half asleep) got to stare at Megan Fox’s boobs and remind himself he was straight while resting his head on Xuxi’s biceps.

It had been a great evening, that had ended with Xiaojun in Xuxi’s embrace, where he had still been in the morning. Not like there was anywhere else to move but he wouldn’t want to if he could.

Xiaojun re-emerged from the bathroom in his fresh underwear, hair dripping wildly, to Guanheng and Ten on his roomie’s bed. Ten looked like he had just gotten from bed as well and Xiaojun was able to add one and one together and conclude whose bed that had been for him to be here now.

Ten looked at him wide eyed, then at his torso, then at his face again.

“Wow… I mean… wow. Oh. Your boyfriend left a hickey under your ear.”

“What?” Xiaojun rushed back into the bathroom and checked but there was nothing there. There were plenty of them littered where clothing would cover, but not under his ear – what an absurd place to put one, to begin with, “Ten, there’s no hickey!”

“Check really closely,” Guanheng yelled and Xiaojun frowned when he realised he had gotten clowned.

Also, Xuxi wasn’t his boyfriend, but the other two knew that as much as he did, so he really should have noticed they were just teasing him. Har har.

“Why are you even here?” Xiaojun asked while finally dressing his (very impressive and muscular, as once more confirmed by Ten) body. It also allowed him to cover the actual hickeys on his chest and thighs. It wasn’t like he felt ashamed. The first time, he still had been, but it was impossible to keep secrets with Guanheng as his roommate. By now, they all knew Xuxi and he had this casual thing. It was just a bit of having fun together, that was what college was for, wasn’t it?

But the hickeys somehow felt a bit… intimate. He felt like they were only for Xuxi to see.

“Kun has a tutors’ meeting. They start at 8 like they’re all gone actually crazy. I threatened to break up with him if he woke me. He actually snuck from the room, god knows how. When I woke up, I was lonely. Luckily, I remembered my lovely baby chick was here and I stepped by but now Guanheng’s complaining he’s the only single person,” Ten arched his back and stretched his legs with a groan and Guanheng glared at him.

“I’ll be founding a club. Yangyang and Meiqi have announced they will also be joining, but Meiqi still has her friend with benefits situation with Xuanyi so I might have to revoke her membership.” Guanheng pursed his lips.

Xiaojun was single, too, but he didn’t feel lonely when he had Xuxi to do basically everything he could hope to do with a girlfriend with, and probably more.

“What about Chengxiao?” Xiaojun opted for jogging pants because he had nowhere to be and he had these really tight pants to wear later, so, he had to spare his thighs for the time being.

“Chengxiao has a girlfriend, at home. They’re also doing long-distance though not as long-distance as Japan. Thanks for remote-controlled toys, that way she’s getting at least a little. Technology is such a blessing since that is a major issue in LDRs for allosexuals,” Ten mused.

Xiaojun nodded in understanding without understanding, which was just a great skill to have. He still hadn’t googled twinks, he’d add allocating sexual to the list.

“And me? I’ll just become a camboy and give my most loyal fan the password. And by most loyal, I mean best paying.”

“Yeah, I’d really strongly advise you against that but don’t let me stop you. If you do start an account, give me your handle so I can at least monitor the chat.”

Xiaojun personally had been a loyal follower of a few camgirls to get through puberty without exploiting any abusive systems, but he failed to make the connection what Guanheng would give the password to… toys….

OH! Sex toys! Xiaojun felt his ears warm up and tried to not think more about those. Instead, he pulled out his homework because while exams were still far away, he was falling behind on his workload a little because he spent so much time in the gym, in coffee shops, and in Xuxi’s bed this past week in particular.

“Speaking of sex, Xiaojun, I, as your favourite roommate and the introducing homosexual who will now get a promotion to executive manager at the homosexual agenda union, have gotten you an essential from the pure goodness of my heart. Stop looking like that, it’s a joke.”

“Okay.” Xiaojun’s thoughts went right back to sex toys and he was just a little scared now, however, he tried to not show it and calmly put down his books to face whatever joke Guanheng had in store head-on.

“I felt like you might need a bit of help to get started in the department, there’s so much lube out there, so, I’ll share my wisdom,” Guanheng flung a bottle Xiaojun’s direction, who scrambled to catch it. Wait, lube? What?

The tag was quite pretty and read Silicone Glide, velvet touch… love… all-night-long…

“It’s silicone-based and I know it’s a discourse which is better but I say this is better for beginners in particular because it just slides much better. It’s latex safe, too, so don’t worry about condoms breaking, won’t happen, at least not because of the lube.”

Xiaojun suddenly had a revelation what exactly he was holding and dropped the bottle in shock.

“Aw, look, he’s speechless,” Ten chuckled.

Xiaojun scrambled to pick the lube back up because he wasn’t a disrespectful prick.

“Uh… thank you? I mean…” Xiaojun’s face burnt when he thought back to Xuxi pressing his finger just above his asshole last night and where his mind had wandered because of that. It had felt good… really good.

“Don’t feel pressured, of course,” Guanheng assured him and laid back down next to Ten, who started to comb through his fading teal hair with his fingers, “I was just thinking you might want to be prepared. And your reaction was hilarious.”

“Yeah, don’t let anyone pressure you. If you don’t feel ready, don’t do it. Sex, generally, makes you vulnerable, especially when there’s someone on a receiving end and at the hands of their partner. Complete trust has to be the basis for that.” Ten agreed, “Oh, and about lube, I agree with silicone but I discourage you from using anything relaxing. They claim to work miracles but if you don’t feel it’s uncomfortable then you don’t know when it’s too much – but you will know later. It’s easy to get hurt and you also don’t feel friction so you miss half the fun. So. Hands off that, goes for both of you.” Ten huffed and blew hair from his eyes.

“R-right.” Hurt? Xiaojun added anal stuff to the list of topics to google. It obviously looked easy in porn but blowjobs also looked easy, and he knew that had been a lie. He might find a helpful article on how to go about this best. He could just try in the privacy of the bathroom, you didn’t need two people for fingering.

Because… well, he already had lube now, so… why not… try…?

Millions of people did it and had fun, sooooooo?

“Xiaojun, how’s your lab-partner? I’ve been wanting to ask for days but I keep forgetting, now that we’re on the topic of asses, it came naturally.” Guanheng inquired and Xiaojun hid the lube in his drawer and laughed. He proceeded to stumble over a pair of jeans tangled up with a random shoe but safely made his way to his bed with all limbs intact.

“Good, I mean, we still don’t really talk but his lab reports are always on Aliyun in time and I just have to merge them, which I guess is fine because else I’d have to talk to him and… yeah, dunno, I’m fine not talking to anyone.”

“Good, good, very good,” Guanheng nodded in approval.

“It’s so strange to me that you turn full anti-social in your classes, you talked to us right away, right? I can’t picture you hidden under your hood and glaring at people to leave you alone,” Ten giggled.

“I don’t do that,” Xiaojun muttered, “I don’t know, I felt comfortable with you, well, feel, I obviously still do. But that’s enough friends, it’s like a budget that’s used up at some point.”

“Cute. I’m glad it all worked out how it did. Imagine you had gotten some alpha male roomie who’d encouraged the baggy pants and you’d never realised Xuxi is as much a nerd as you when you both fail to look the part. Truly tragic.”

Ten was right, that would have been truly tragic.

“I can’t move.”

“You’re not supposed to move while I do your hair,” Guanheng sighed deeply.

Xiaojun had lazed on his bed, then reluctantly done tons of homework (finishing only 30%), read an article Xuxi had sent him, then gotten lost in a discussion about feather colouring on dinosaurs with said Xuxi, and, finally, googled his ‘to google’ list.

He felt so much smarter but it also kind of horny and itching to put his lube to the test and find out if all these claims online were true.

He had also found out many straight couples did butt-stuff because a man’s g-spot, essentially, was up there, sooooo it was totally straight to try and hopefully suggest it to Xuxi at some point.

“Yeah, but, like, I don’t see myself able to move later either,” Xiaojun’s head was ripped backwards by the brush and he groaned.

“You’re just a drama queen. The fabric needs a bit to warm up and give in and then you’ll be perfectly fine. Have you never heard of the term beauty is pain?”

“No,” Guanheng spread generous amounts of gel in Xiaojun’s hair and continued forming it.

“Yeah, of course, you haven’t. You also don’t know the difference between burgundy and magenta. Thank god we still have Xuxi in this equation.”

Xiaojun decided it was time to stay quiet and pretend he wasn’t confused. His pants also were tight on his balls and while his thighs looked absolutely amazing, he also felt like he was leaving too little to the imagination.

Guanheng finished and declared it a masterpiece before returning to his elaborate eye-make-up, leaving Xiaojun to inspect his hair in the bathroom mirror.

Yep.

This was a masterpiece, no doubt about it, holy crap.

He focussed on how his ass looked a little round and through that managed to come to the conclusion the pants weren’t that terrible and who even needed blood circulation past their thighs? That’s right, no one if they could look this hot in turn.

Xiaojun had still opted out of any additional sparkle because that was just too much in his humble opinion, he was still a guy, after all.

Xuxi had gone MIA an hour ago but Xiaojun knew he had said something about shaving and body lotion, so that must be taking up his time. He, personally, didn’t see any reason as to why Xuxi would have to shave. He found it very sexy how the happy trail suggestively disappeared but kept you thinking about what was hiding underneath the clothing and he also envied how much body hair Xuxi had because Xiaojun’s own was rather sparse other than on his legs and his dick.

Maybe, he wouldn’t shave all of it?

It wasn’t even like it was Xiaojun’s business, anyway. Still, he’d point out how sexy he found it next time they did any sort of activity. Xiaojun had also read more on blowjobs until he felt only practice would get him better, so… well, obviously, he’d ask if Xuxi still felt up to it.

In the meanwhile, Xiaojun sent him a cute cat gif that was bathing in money. It felt fitting with the entire cash-situation going on.

An hour later, Xiaojun had actually finished and submitted his Biochem I homework and Guanheng had finished his make-up, hair, and outfit.

It was time to go.

Guanheng looked like a disco-ball but he somehow pulled it off.

“Oho, your boyfriend came to pick up his Prince Charming,” Guanheng squeaked and Xiaojun looked for boyfriends but only found Xuxi, who….

“Oh dear god.”

“Yeah, he looks pretty good, doesn’t he?”

Xiaojun was quite sure his heart couldn’t take this. It had been nice going to Vision uni and having Kun as their very motivated tutor and the queer community be his friends.

Xuxi had entirely too many buttons undone of his shiny shirt, his trousers straining over his thighs and… fuck, his dick looked massive. Well, it sort of was but this was just ridiculous.

However, Xuxi also looked like he had been struck by lightning and his brain had taken the main damage, his eyes glued to Xiaojun to the point that his skin tingled from the intensity of the gaze.

“Just jump each other in the fucking hallway, why don’t you. Urgh, being single is _the_ worst. I’ll find Yangyang to complain, please only have a quicky, we need to get going.” Guanheng pushed past the flabbergasted Xuxi and Xiaojun felt his face burn up. He wasn’t ashamed to admit he and Xuxi were sort of fooling around but he still felt a little embarrassed whenever Guanheng was this straightforward about it.

It also left him alone in the hallway with a Xuxi that he, indeed, wanted to spontaneously jump.

Well, totally inappropriate and also he wouldn’t get out of these pants anyway, so.

“You look good,” Xiaojun croaked out, showing off what a true intellectual he was.

Xuxi grabbed him by his waist and pulled him closer, a hand definitely on Xiaojun’s ass, (hello? Rude!) and bent down to kiss him, not even just a peck, no, that was definitely tongue. Xiaojun wished he could say he cared, but he just didn’t and kissed back as hungrily. The hallway was empty and god, he had wanted this.

Xuxi squeezed his ass and Xiaojun whimpered involuntarily.

“Fuck, why do we even leave, I just want to eat you up!” Xuxi whispered, eyes burning into Xiaojun’s skin.

“I didn’t get cash to now stay home,” Xiaojun tutted and freed himself. Also, his pants were too tight for boners. There was no hiding them, so, he needed to get away before the situation became any more serious.

Xuxi grabbed him again and interlaced their fingers, which Xiaojun hoped no one would give him a hard time for, but then he remembered his gay rumours, so it would be fine.

He squeezed Xuxi’s hand back and allowed himself another glimpse of his chest and arms and… oh god, why had Guanheng put him into non-hard-on-safe pants?

This was torture!

Getting across what felt like half of China took them nearly an hour. Xiaojun had thought traffic would quiet down during the night but, boy, had he been wrong! Between girls dolled up and guys showing off whatever they had, they fit right in, the masses more colourful the closer to their destination they got, and the fewer the irritated people who just wanted to get home.

This time, the club didn’t look like it was involved with organised crime, which was nice because Xiaojun still wasn’t eager to write home for his bail.

Instead, the entrance was lit up in red, their sign looking more like the entrance to hell than to a drug lab. Really, hell was so much preferable over illegal substances, wasn’t it?

“Everyone has to tell at least two people when they leave,” Xuanyi announced, looking every part their oldest, a hand on Meiqi’s bare waist. Meiqi sipped on the can of beer she and some others had gotten from the convenience store because it’d be expensive in the club, “And text the group chat. Safety first!”

“Yes, mum,” Yangyang chirped and Xuanyi pulled his ear, making him squeak.

Xiaojun’s hand had conveniently found purchase on Xuxi’s arm. He realised he had been petting it through the fabric but, really, why shouldn’t he? It was hard as steel and so hot. Xiaojun believed his own arms had gotten more than beautiful definition and mass, but feeling it on Xuxi was always preferable. So, he kept ghosting his fingers over it and he knew Xuxi knew because he kept flexing to show off.

They got past the bouncers, who stamped their hands, and Xiaojun was quite glad no one had actually inquired if he was a member of the LGBTQA+ community, seeing how he was straight. He let Xuxi drag him along through the masses to get more alcohol. It was crowded because it was quite late already, the time when the cool people slowly would join the party people on the streets.

The barkeeper had sparkle around his eyes, similarly to Guanheng, and Xiaojun was happy when Xuxi gifted him his fruit skewer again. It was off to a great start.

Just, how they’d fit in stand-up comedy here, he wasn’t sure. The music was booming through the club, all fun remixes, and people were already dancing. There was a stage, though still empty, but Xiaojun sipped on his cocktail and felt like no one would listen to the comedian.

Well, surely it’d be fine.

He kind of lost Xuxi, which was sad but also fine because he found Chengxiao and Chengxiao was in a spending mood, which was great because Xiaojun got another cocktail (it was blue and tasted of coconut). He even bounced around the dancefloor like a newly born deer with her because he was already kinda drunk, and then the show started and…

Well

It wasn’t stand-up comedy.

That was for sure.

But it was still fun!

Xiaojun had never expected to see a man in a dress as a woman, but a one with extremely heavy make-up, giving a wild danging routine while pretending to sing American pop songs, but here he was, having a great time.

He felt very happy to throw his bills after every song and hopped up and down with Chengxiao. Thanks to more cocktails, he didn’t even realise he became tired. Guanheng became the voluntary guest on stage and showed off some impressive agility in those tight jeans.

Xiaojun hooted even louder.

The last act was a song called toxic that got the crowd going completely wild and Xiaojun didn’t know the song but found himself going with the flow, feeling like he owned the world. It was great!

When it was over, he was kind of sad but also still so pumped, he and Chengxiao just kept going, twirling each other around sloppily. He had also forgotten he couldn’t dance, which helped greatly until he became too sober and returned to the bar while Chengxiao found Sicheng to dance with.

“Hey, Yangyaaang!” Xiaojun beamed and hugged his friend. Yangyang patted his back and held still. “I really love you all so muuuuuch!”

“Okay, that’s nice. I think you’re drunk.”

“Mayeeeeee just a tiiiiiny little,” Xiaojun giggled and butted his head against Yangyang, who sighed. Xiaojun ordered a cocktail and forced Yangyang to drink half of it, which he reluctantly did. Wait, wasn’t he broke? Whatever, his Alipay was still working. It’d be fine. Xiaojun munched on the cherry it had come with while the lights spun beautifully.

Yangyang was still not looking any more cheerful but stared across the club with glassy eyes.

Xiaojun followed his line of sight and noticed a few people. Maybe girls? It was hard to focus on anything.

“Ohoooo, did someone catch your attentiooon?” Xiaojun asked right into Yangyang’s ear. Yangyang pushed him away, or he tried to but Xiaojun wanted to cuddle so he didn’t budge.

“Yeah. I don’t know, she’d never look at me twice,” he sounded heart-broken, so Xiaojun felt heart-broken, too.

“Nooo! But you’re handsome and witty! I’m sure she’d be happy to get to know you!”

“Great, so do you know how to talk to someone?” Yangyang looked hopeful and Xiaojun stared back at him blankly.

Ew, no, he didn’t talk to strangers…

“See, that’s the issue,” Yangyang groaned and slouched into his seat.

“No! Don’t give up!” Xiaojun pulled on his arm and Yangyang fell from his chair due to the force, stumbling into Xiaojun and they both went down because Xiaojun had exactly 0 body-control left.

Wow, the floor was so comfy and the lights so pretty from down here.

Wow, he was so tired.

“Xiaojun, fucking hell, get off the floor, who knows when they cleaned here the last time!” someone pulled on his arm but he was sure the floor was really clean and fine to sleep on.

“Hey, did you hit your head?”

“Tireeeed,” Xiaojun batted the unpleasant annoyance away. He was fine, just needed to sleep.

The music was nice, like a lullaby with lots of bass.

Suddenly, he was pulled off the ground and he was about to complain and demand to be left to sleep, but whoever it was didn’t make him stand but carried him like a princess, which was nice because he could doze right back off.

Only, they seemed to step outside and it was cold and his goodnight-music was now gone.

Wait!

Was he being kidnapped?

“Let me down!” Xiaojun started wiggling and the grab on him loosened and he found himself on two very wobbly legs, “I will not be kidnapped! Kidnapping is illegal!” he turned to the assumed criminal, but, hey, that was a very hot gangster, oh, wait, that was Xuxi.

“Yes, of course, it is. I’m glad you will not be kidnapped that would be very sad, careful,” Xuxi pulled him back upright from where Xiaojun had failed to coordinate both his left and his right leg at the same time.

Well, it was a lot of legs, so.

“Why did we leave? It was so nice!” Xiaojun whined.

“Because you’re drunk and decided to sleep in front of the bar. Come on, let’s find a hotel and a better bed,” Xuxi gently tugged on his arm.

Oh, hotel? “You wanna have sex?” Xiaojun stumbled against him and blinked up at Xuxi. He still looked so hot, even though Xiaojun couldn’t really focus on him because it was too hard, but he knew he did because he always did and he also liked archaeology which automatically made him 200% hotter, obviously.

“We can have sex when you’re sober again,” Xuxi led him down the busy street and Xiaojun felt very upset by the news.

“But I wanna!”

“That’s nice. I bet you won’t even get it up and I want you to be coherent and fully aware of what you’re doing.”

Words were way too exhausting to listen to right now and Xiaojun just stumbled along, pouting. The lights were spinning and he was glad Xuxi was holding him up because he wouldn’t have known where up as.

“Can we talk about sharks then? I wanna talk about sharks!”

“Okay, sure,” Xuxi chuckled.

“Did you know Greenland sharks become suuuuper old? Like, like, like,” what had he just been talking about? Oh! Sharkies! “500 years! There’s sharks ooolder than the Qing dynasty!”

“Wow, that’s so cool! I didn’t know that,” Xiaojun giggled, very happy over spreading wisdom.

They entered some sort of dimly lit lobby and Xuxi started typing on a huge vending machine. Xiaojun leaned heavily against him and started petting his arm, then his chest and… oh! The piercing! Xuxi was wearing it! It felt so funny through the t-shirt fabric and…

“Xiaojun, heaven, what kind of little demon did you turn into?” Xuxi grabbed his hand and suddenly, Xiaojun was up in the air which was not that great for his already very faulty sense of direction, but he felt Xuxi’s pecs and abs and god, he was so hot!

Also, he was tired.

Really tired.

Xiaojun sighed and dropped his head against the broad shoulder right in front of him and closed his eyes, letting sleep lull him in.

He really wished he could have a girlfriend like Xuxi. It was perfect!

Xiaojun had said he wasn’t going to drink again. He should have remembered his words.

“Screw cocktails for being so sweet,” he groaned and Xuxi chuckled lowly.

“Open up,” Xiaojun did as asked and felt the painkiller on his tongue. He swallowed and pulled the blanket up to hide his face, “We have to leave before 11, that’s in two hours. Is there anything I could help you with?” Xuxi stroked his fingers through Xiaojun’s hair and he wanted to cry a little.

“No, I’m… really sorry. I don’t even remember everything only really embarrassing stuff,” Xiaojun kind of hoped to cuddle but he remembered asking for sex on the open street like a horny incubus and then going off about sharks… oh god, could his mum please pick him up? He wasn’t doing well with this adult-think, he’d like a refund, please.

The bed dipped and Xiaojun felt Xuxi wiggled back under the covers and a moment later, there was a big hand on his bare thigh and a half-dressed body pressing against his back. Perfect. He was not ready to give back his Xuxi, ever.

“You were so cute, so, so cute, but also really sexy especially in those clothes. Will you wear them again? Soon? Just for me?” Xuxi’s voice dropped and Xiaojun’s stomach clenched.

His thoughts went back to male g-spots and silicone lube…

“Hmmm, I have lots of uni this week because of the tutorials starting but how about Tuesday after gym? I don’t have classes until 10 on Wednesday?” he softly suggested. He still was mainly embarrassed about getting so silly drunk but he also remembered Xuxi and having to share his twin-sized bed because he hadn’t been in moving-condition. An eye for an eye, maybe?

The grip on his thigh tightened ad Xuxi pushed his leg between Xiaojun. He was hard, probably morning wood. He realised how smooth the leg felt and reached down. Ah, right, he had shaved. Xuxi ground up and Xiaojun felt his dick press against the side of his ass.

“I don’t - I don’t have any until 12.” Xuxi rasped and pushed against him once more, “We could… take our time…” Xiaojun stroked over Xuxi’s thigh until it was quivering and he kept rolling his hips against Xiaojun. It was quite basic, easy, to just feel him rub against his ass, but also hot. He was still too hungover to get properly aroused but he was always happy to make Xuxi feel good.

“I thought we should take really posey gym-pics, too. Like, shirtless?” Xiaojun reached down to help Xuxi and the other moaned against the shell of his ear. His cock felt smoother without the hair. Xiaojun wasn’t sure which he preferred, he had thought he wouldn’t like it shaved but he was having second guesses now.

“We’d look so hot. Could I post them on Weibo?”

“Hm… sure, tag me, though,” Xuxi shuddered and grabbed Xiaojun’s hips to give himself leverage.

“Of course, so everyone knows you’re mine.”

Xiaojun hummed. Sure, gym buddies for life, right? Xuxi started sucking on his neck and Xiaojun let him because he could tell he was getting close and it felt good. Everything with Xuxi seemed to feel good. Because he liked Xuxi.

Like a really special friend he also liked to have sex with and kiss and hang out a whole lot and cuddle and talk for hours because he was straight so he couldn’t be in love with Xuxi, that didn’t make sense.

Xuxi bucked up one last time and moaned Xiaojun’s name and Xiaojun turned a little to properly kiss him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)  
Twitter: @155Fox


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Xiaojun in Lucas’ Insta-live gave me the chance to give you [this](https://youtu.be/q_1zqrKQRj0?t=140) clip, that fit PERFECTLY for this AU (gym buddies 4 life)

Surprisingly, Xiaojun was still the first one home.

He used his free time to nap which didn’t cure his hangover, pity himself over his hangover, make ramen to feed his hangover, whine to Xuxi about his hangover, pity himself some more over his hangover, and try to do his homework which ended up not working because he was too hungover.

Guanheng only came in the afternoon, looking about the state one would expect him to be in after a night so wild he only returned past noon, but also with slightly puffy eyes that hinted it had taken a bad ending. Xiaojun wordlessly got off his bed and hugged his roomie/friend. It seemed very much appreciated because Guanheng immediately started sniffling into his hoodie and Xiaojun dragged him over to his bed to sit down.

It took Guanheng about half an hour to calm down for good, but it was fine, Xiaojun just waited for him to get there and petted his hair while he did. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do anyway.

“Urgh, I’m such an idiot!” Guanheng eventually announced and rubbed his face, getting up from the bed and waddling into the bathroom. Xiaojun wasn’t that great with words but he could listen, so he decided to use his strengths because Guanheng generally spoke a lot and he spoke without much of a filter.

They fit quite well, if Xiaojun may say so. Guanheng, arguably, was his best friend. He didn’t feel like kissing him and when he ran around their dorm room only in underwear it did quite little for Xiaojun – other than he would acknowledge that he obviously was handsome and had very good skin. So, Xuxi got _special friend_ and Guanheng got _best friend_. That seemed fair.

“I’m sure you’re not,” the water was running and Guanheng was washing his face, not answering. He came back out from the bathroom and peeled off his skinny jeans, hissing and cursing under his breath as if he had pulled a muscle. Xiaojun knew for sure Guanheng avoided physical activity like the devil the cross, but it was the association in his mind.

“Yeah, I am. I’m pretty sure I am. I don’t even feel like I deserve pity because it’s just 100% my own fault and I want to be accountable for my actions but I also want to whine.”

Xiaojun nodded like he was also holding himself accountable for his actions and not whining around like because he had gotten drunk and spent all his money.

Guanheng threw on jogging pants and a t-shirt with a comic heroine before flopping on his bed with another groan, “Fuck, my ass hurts. So… I mean, I might have pretended I knew shit and stuff and I might but I, uh, I was still a virgin. Prior to last night. I was just tipsy so I felt comfortable making dumb-ass decision and there was this really cute guy, totally my type, who kept paying me attention and he grabbed my butt while we danced and maybe ground up against each other on the dancefloor and he made so many compliments over everything – my hair, my make-up, my clothes. Yeah, I’m just a shallow bitch who ate it right up.” Guanheng sighed and buried his face in his pillow.

“If you feel better, I was just as proud of looking hot,” Xiaojun chipped in. He also remembered he had said to doll himself up for Xuxi after gym on Tuesday and he suddenly itched to try the lube even with a lingering headache…

“Actually, yes, it does make me feel better, thanks. Anyway, you know how it goes, we make out on the side of the dancefloor, he has a big dick, I get super horny. God. I did tell everyone goodbye, so that was good, and then we found a hotel and he does have a big dick but we’re also tipsy and he hardly even finds my prostate while fingering me, but I’m too dumb to care because he’s cute and my dumb-ass monkey brain finds that enough to get away with terrible foreplay. Am I an idiot? I’m an idiot.”

Xiaojun wondered if Xuxi knew where prostates were. Xiaojun had looked at the anatomical pictures but he wasn’t sure how to find one in real-life. He should try that. Later today. Soon.

“I mean, a big dick is a big dick so I still got a pretty good time out of it but if he knew how to use it, it would have been infinitely better! It’s so upsetting! And I’m sore like I was hit by a bus because of course we got impatient. Well, he was gone in the morning, just a note that he had a magical night. My ass. No number, no name, but at least he had paid for 24 hours in the room so I showered for, like, three and re-evaluated my life decisions. I came to the conclusion that I’m an idiot but at least virginity is a social construct worth literally nothing and I now know that a big dick isn’t everything, you have to know how to fuck, too.”

“That’s nice.”

Guanheng cooed and squeezed Xiaojun’s cheeks. Xiaojun was just glad Guanheng didn’t seem to have taken long-term emotional damage. He still had puffy eyes and it was a bit heartbreaking to see, but he was smiling now.

“Want to get yummy cafeteria-late-lunch to feel better?” Xiaojun offered. He had had Ramen but he was sort of hungry and hadn’t yet met his protein for the day – carbs and fats on the other hand…

“God, yes. Did I tell you you’re the bestest roomie? Oh, now that my own worries have been addressed how did your evening go? I didn’t worry too much after Xuxi carried you out like a knight in shining armour. I bet he doesn’t only have a big dick but also knows how to use it, god, I’m so jealous.”

Actually… that was a terrific question… that Xiaojun may or may not be asking himself.

Over heartbreaking amounts of broccoli and a tiny piece of chicken (low fat), Xiaojun checked his balance. Now he really felt like crying. He was down to 16 Yuan but it was his own fault. Screw drunk-Xiaojun and his terrible life-choices! So, he blocked his Alipay to avoid being a drunk dumbass and spending again.

Sicheng found them and complained about getting sexiled but Xiaojun was just happy Kun hadn’t been there yesterday. Imagine if their very motivated tutor had seen Xiaojun… drunk… dancing… deciding to sleep on the floor until his gym buddy had to carry him off... A nightmare. Luckily, he had excused himself with saying he wasn’t that much of a party person – who would have thought? (Just kidding, no one was surprised).

Xiaojun found it weird, too, that Kun kept coming over when he had a huge single room (small single rooms, by the way, worked just as well to have sex if he may say so himself) but Sicheng said Ten had more stuff the two used and Xiaojun was quite sure he didn’t want to know anything past that point or he might not be able to look at Kun ever again.

Sicheng said he just thought people should keep it in their pants more in general and Xiaojun nodded as if he wasn’t thinking about Xuxi’s his dick in this very moment.

“By the way, I’ve come up with a wonderful costume concept for the summer festival, Sicheng. You won’t know what hit you when I submit that shit!” Guanheng beamed like they’d all better pray it didn’t make it through, insane eyebrows and all.

“You realise we have a message in our dance? Did you consider the storyline and music? We also have to remember lighting and partners going together.” Sicheng looked like Xiaojun better started praying harder – but now for Guanheng.

“Absolutely. I love the drums, by the way. We only have the storyboards, though. We all work off them. But I’m sure I have a good grip on it. Like I said, it’s literally the best designs ever.”

Sicheng hummed, narrowing his eyes.

“I didn’t like last year’s costumes. From a theatrical point of view, they lacked. I know I’m not the only one. I’m just thinking, because we obviously can only choose from the suggested designs, maybe… you could, you know, drop by and get inspired a bit?”

“Holy shit, is that allowed?” Guanheng gasped. Xiaojun mentally checked out of the conversation. This really wasn’t his comfort zone, maybe Xuxi would have been able to contribute. They were now talking about spandex. When people said spandex, Xiaojun automatically thought of men with massive amounts of chest hair and too small speedos. God, how did Xuxi look in swimming trunks… with his abs and the trail of hair… or without hair, both were good… 

“Xiaojun, you’re almost drooling and I doubt it’s about my marvellous designs.” Guanheng complained.

Xiaojun quickly wiped his chin, even though he was sure he had not been doing any of that.

Sicheng checked his watch and signed.

“Another 105 minutes. Does anyone want to do homework in the library together?”

Xiaojun did not want to do homework in the library, but Sicheng had this weird elf-puppy-look and now he was nodding.

Well, it was due tomorrow anyway, hangover be screwed.

In the end, Xiaojun found himself so emersed in mitosis and its different stages, he was the last to leave the level II zone (There was level III – group activities and talking allowed, II – whispering, I – quiet, and 0 – Xiaojun had understood it so that you weren’t even allowed to yawn there because it’d be deemed too loud).

The lights in their room were off and Xiaojun glanced at the time stamp of the Jurassic Park meme Xuxi had just sent him – 10:14 pm. Well, Guanheng had had a hell of a day, he deserved his sleep.

Just like him.

However, Xiaojun wasn’t that tired.

His roommate's even breathing filled the room, letting him know the other was out for good.

He wouldn’t know if Xiaojun took forever in the bathroom. There would be no questions asked, no suggestive eyebrows, nothing.

Xiaojun’s thoughts had gone back to this one idea all day, even over the smell of books and Sicheng chewing cherry gum while solving mile-long equations next to him.

A better chance to get time to himself wouldn’t come.

He could just… try… see if he liked it…

Xiaojun’s heart was suddenly thundering in his chest but he snuck into the room and put his laptop away without making any noise. He found the bottle of lube in his drawer and stroked over the label. He was alone, he could stop any time when it became too much. No one would know.

He closed the drawer and stripped whatever clothes he wouldn’t need before sneaking into the bathroom. The lock clicked in place and Xiaojun took a deep breath. He was nervous. He wasn’t even sure why but he was, but his nerves were tingling more than when he and Xuxi had kissed for the first time. That had just been so natural and easy, out of seemingly nowhere.

Now, he had already been thinking about this for way too long.

He tried to push the feeling down. It was time to just not-think. He had no expectations to live up to, nothing, it was just trying something new. Many straight guys did this.

Probably.

Xiaojun decided he’d feel better if it was dark, so, he switched the lights back off and stripped his underwear His dick was a bit chubby and he let his fingers stroke over it how he did so often, feeling reassured by the familiarity of the action. He sunk to the floor, his left hand still clutching the lube. He could use it on his cock first! He needed something to allow his hand to slide, anyway.

The cap snapped open with a bit of force and Xiaojun squeezed a small amount on his fingers, rubbing it between then. It was just as slippery as the packaging had promised and warmed up quickly. Xiaojun carefully wrapped his fingers around his dick and when he pumped up and down the length, it felt like it was someone else doing it because of how easy and unfamiliar the slide was. He gasped and bucked up into his own touch, surprised at how good it felt.

He could just imagine it was Xuxi… he thought back to Xuxi gasping under him while he licked over his nipple and played with the bar in it. Xiaojun heard his breathing pick up and moved his hand faster. He thought back to Xuxi’s mouth on his and him playing with his perineum…

Xiaojun slowed down.

He wanted to try. He wanted to know!

He was right-handed but he also needed this hand to jack off, he couldn’t do it with his left, and fingering wouldn’t necessarily replace the need for that, so, why not teach his left this new skill?

Xiaojun fumbled with the bottle, impossibly slippery from the lube, and just barely managed to open it. How much would he need? Well, a lot, probably. He squeezed out a generous amount and put the open bottle aside, in case he’d need more. He rubbed the fingers on his left together and the slick gel oozed out from between them, getting his entire hand wet. Well, whatever, too much was better than too little, he had read.

Xiaojun stared at his own hard, barely visible in the dark bathroom, and felt nervous again. He let his right hand play with his dick. This was good, he liked how the lube made it feel, he could focus on this first. He kept it deliberately slow, teasing and working himself up but not to the point of lust clouding his head.

Just… just try…

Xiaojun reached down and shuddered when his hand touched his balls. He let it go lower, rubbing over the pace Xuxi had pressed down on but it didn’t feel the same without knowing how to go about it. Had Xuxi done this before? Probably, right? He had sounded like he had tried anal before. At the very least, Xuxi had the same parts to experiment on as Xiaojun had.

The thought of Xuxi pushing his fingers into himself was maddeningly hot. The thought of Xuxi pushing his fingers into Xiaojun… well, he wasn’t sure. But he could imagine Xuxi towering over him, kissing him sloppily, arms straining to hold his torso up while Xiaojun got closer to his high…

He jerked away when he felt the wet lube on his rim.

The second time he touched, he was prepared and able to hold still. It felt weird, like this was not the place to be, but his skin tingled, speaking of how sensitive it was.

Xiaojun tugged on his dick, twisting up, and his nerves eased enough to let curiosity win again.

He let Xuxi’s deep voice, raspy how it always got when he was turned on, echo in his ears and massaged around the ring of muscle.

It stopped feeling weird and started feeling okay after a little. Okay or maybe even a little good because it was more sensitive than he would have expected. Even with the lube, he felt every small change. Xiaojun tried warming the muscle up, slowly moving his other hand up and down his dick, keeping himself aroused and hungry for more.

Should he just… try and push in? Xiaojun swallowed and squeezed the base of his dick, nerves flaring up again but the thought of potentially feeling even better spurring him on.

The article had recommended the ring finger, so, Xiaojun used it to press around the opening a bit, just testing.

It suddenly slipped inside, the lube making everything so wet and easy, had must have failed to realise how much he had already relaxed himself. Xiaojun squeaked and nearly pulled it back out because he had been unprepared but… it didn’t feel bad. It didn’t feel good either but it was just weird, very weird.

He tightened the grip on his dick, picking up the pace. It was so easy with the lube letting his hand slide over his length, no need to worry over a place being too dry and uncomfortable.

The more he got into it, the more he felt himself tighten around his finger. Still, no pain, just weird, but also… exciting. Slowly, Xiaojun pulled his finger out, just a little, to push it back inside, crooking it. He didn’t think he’d be able to find the spot he was looking for quite as easily, but he tried.

As he searched, he realised how good the friction was. Especially on his rim and just inside, where it seemed to be the most sensitive, it sent sparks up his spine. Xiaojun did it again and again, only giving himself a little of it, just what felt nice and made his dick twitch in his hand. The lube squelched when he moved his fingers and the sound sent a shiver over his skin.

He imagined it being Xuxi doing this, pushing into him… his fingers would be thicker, by a lot. He’d also have a better angle, able to push in deeper and feel more.

Xiaojun realised he had closed his legs but he just left it as it was and kept thrusting into himself. Maybe, he could add another?

Carefully, he pulled the finger out to the tip, too scared to pull out all the way and not being able to push back inside. He realised his thighs were trembling but it didn’t really matter he was just focused on his pleasure right now.

He had to apply a bit more pressure until he opened around his middle finger. It was different, just one finger made a huge difference in how thick it felt. Xiaojun had to take a second and adjust to the stretch. It didn’t hurt it just felt so full, so different. He tried to relax his legs but it didn’t really happen and he decided he could make this work with his legs slightly cramped up, too.

He breathed out and a pushed into himself at the same time. It was so much, he felt his head loll back against the wall, his breath stuttering. One more break to adjust.

When we could breathe properly again, Xiaojun tried to relax every muscle waist down and wiggled the fingers a little to see if he could get himself to loosen up. It helped. He was able to twist them a bit and push in deeper. The friction on his rim was more intense now, it felt like his fingers were huge, rubbing in unfamiliar places.

Even though it felt good, it was hard to shake this inherent feeling of this being wrong and weird. Xiaojun was surprised to feel precum on the tip of his cock when he closed his fingers around it. He didn’t feel mind-blowingly amazing, just reasonably turned-on, full, and still nervous.

He prodded against his walls a bit, and it was even weirder but also felt sort of good. He wiggled around on the floor until he had more room to play, and pushed his fingers up to the knuckles, as far as he could, feeling how his rim strained to accommodate them and…

A moan was forced from his lips and his legs immediately tightened around his arm on their own accord when he brushed over something there.

Xiaojun had to take a second to recover, his entire body tingling and his dick suddenly almost oversensitive in his hand, dripping on his stomach.

Oh yes. That had to be it, holy shit.

He was too impatient to let himself catch his breath, he slowly moved his fingers over it again and, once more, a shiver rippled through him and he had to gasp for air softly.

It was almost too much, yet so good he wanted more. Xiaojun just let his hand move up and down his cock, overwhelmed and confused but also delirious in lust. He felt his gut tighten, the high building up with every pump.

Once more, he pushed against that spot in himself and without a warning, he came, the orgasm crashing over him so hard, Xiaojun’s entire body curled up, forcing him to gasp while he spilt over his stomach and the tiles underneath him, clenching down on the two fingers inside him. It pushed them deeper into that spot and made him whimper because it was so intense. He wanted to pull out but he was shaking with his orgasm, unable to do anything for a few seconds until it ebbed off.

Xiaojun took a couple of deep drags of air before he managed to uncurl himself.

Another deep breath and he could open his eyes.

That had been one hell of an orgasm.

He slowly pulled his fingers out of himself and the noise it made seemed to echo off the walls, too loud for the silence that had suddenly spread. It sounded filthy, but also so hot, and Xiaojun just sat there for a moment to calm down and regain feeling in his body. His ass was a little uncomfortable, pulsing in not pain but discomfort. Xiaojun slowly picked up the lube, that nearly slipped from his hands, and closed it.

This… this was not something he was going to come back from. It wasn’t something to do every time, for the obvious mess and effort it took, but, hell, he had felt so good, he couldn’t just pretend he didn’t know how amazing it felt to finger himself and never do it again.

However, how to bring this up? It suddenly felt like involving someone else would add a dimension Xiaojun wasn’t sure how to handle. Nevermind his ass was a bit tender and that had just been two fingers. If he tried to imagine Xuxi’s fingers… Xuxi’s cock? Yeah, no way that’d fit.

He slowly picked himself up from the ground, legs a bit shaky, but otherwise fine, and turned on the shower.

From how long it took him to get the lube off himself, he could guess why some would prefer a water-based one, but he couldn’t complain when this had just helped him so tremendously.

Xiaojun hadn’t been making excuses when he had said uni would pick up, however, he had not been prepared for how much more draining a day with two extra classes would be.

When he was finally in the cafeteria on Monday evening, searching for familiar faces, he was sure his brain had bid him goodbye four hours ago. At least Xuxi had picked him up for lunch and fit in a small kiss in an empty hallway. He missed him even though it had only been a few hours. Thank god he’d see him for cardio later.

There were only Yangyang and Sicheng on the table, both of them lost in their phones, and Xiaojun groaned when he sat down. His ass had recovered over night, which was good, but he was exhausted.

“Hey, tutorials kicking your butt?” Sicheng asked, looking up from his phone and smiling angelically. Xiaojun was already feeling 25% better, he must be a deity sent from above to bless them mere mortals with his presence.

“Yeah. I feel like my brain turned into jelly. If it starts dripping from my ears, please tell me?” Xiaojun started mixing his noddles before digging in.

“I can see a bit of grey already,” Yangyang joked, “The left-overs after Saturday, which, there probably isn’t much we’re still worrying over, right?”

Xiaojun felt a blush rise.

“I’m just teasing, it happens. I was just worried you had actually gotten a concussion when you went down. Thank god you hadn’t. And I think everyone was very smitten by Xuxi stepping in like the hero. In a gay club, on top. They were living for the sweet romance.”

“What sweet romance?” Xiaojun dove deeper into his noodles, trying to not remember accusing Xuxi of kidnapping… asking for sex on the open street… talking about sharks…

Excuse him, could the ground just open? Yes? Now? That’d be A-ma-zing.

“Oh, sorry, you’re too buff for sweet romance?” Yangyang poked his waist and Xiaojun sputtered.

He wasn’t. He just happened to be straight, nothing to it.

“Speaking of, did you hear Yangyang actually found his balls and talked to the girl he had been staring at all evening?” Sicheng grinned and put his phone away for good.

Now, it was Yangyang’s turn to blush brightly.

“Really? Just like that?” Xiaojun felt endless respect for his brave friend.

“Y-yeah, well, no, Xuanyi helped me. It was so weird at first but, god, she’s so beautiful and sweet and she was just a little surprised but said she didn’t mind and I was cute and we exchanged numbers and have been texting ever since. Maybe, we’ll meet up for coffee on Wednesday. Where was the café you and Xuxi always go to for your dates? He said it had a theme changing weekly?”

“Ah, yeah, it also has really cuddly sofas and the best drinks. You have to leave campus headed North and it’s just behind the Sketchers store. Impossible to miss.” Xiaojun explained, feeling good for directing business their way.

“Perfect, thank you. Urgh, it’d be great if it worked out. I mean. Yeah. I don’t know if I passed male for her, like, cis, so I’m still a bit worried.”

“You don’t have to tell her during your first date, you know? Just get to know each other and if it turns out to be more serious, you can have the conversation,” Sicheng softly said over the table.

Yangyang nodded but ruffled his hair, “Just scared she’d be nasty about it and I’d already be too invested at that point. Doesn’t really make that hurt any less.”

Sicheng nodded and Xiaojun reached over to rub Yangyang’s back in silent support.

“It’s like that if you meet people in the street, but more often than not, they will surprise you.” Sicheng encouraged him, seemingly able to find exactly the right words. Wow. A real adult.

“Yeah, I hope so, but you also met your boyfriend in a forum in the sub-threat for ace people, so I feel like giving advice doesn’t hit as hard,” Yangyang complained.

“So many advantages I have, like the freaking ocean between him and me,” Sicheng rolled his eyes playfully and Yangyang apologised.

Xiaojun still thought about it when he was curled up in his bed.

It was weird, how many difficulties were thrown people’s way just because they weren’t like the majority. It made sense they’d flock together and give each other this support they seemed to not get in society as much. He wondered what his mum would say if he told her he liked guys or if he was actually a girl or maybe not fitting any gender, perhaps didn’t experience sexual attraction to anyone.

He hadn’t considered it before because, well, obviously, he was straight.

Now, it suddenly seemed like something to consider. She had always been a little different in raising him, he thought. She had let him play him and his brother with dolls, she had let them cry and she had never pushed masculinity onto them. Neither had his step-dad. His dad had been the one Xiaojun got all his ‘a man has to’ from. Xiaojun had cried a lot over his dad telling him not to cry.

She had always encouraged pursuing his own path. If it were for her, maybe, he’d be studying archaeology right now and not biology.

If he introduced, say, Xuxi as his boyfriend… he hoped she’d accept it.

He trusted her to have his back.

Suddenly, he felt very nervous. Why even? He and Xuxi were just friends because he was straight just…

What if he maybe wasn’t?

Because, if he really thought about it, he had thought he’d want to be in a relationship with someone _like_ Xuxi countless times already. From there, it was such a small step to wishing to be in a relationship with _Xuxi_.

But… he liked boobs. He wasn’t gay? So… he was… straight, right?

Urgh, this was too confusing.

Xiaojun turned around and closed his eyes. He suddenly remembered tomorrow was Tuesday, the day where he’d wear his tight pants for Xuxi’s eyes only.

Great. Now he had a hard-on to add to his identity crisis. How fun. It didn’t particularly help that it was a hard-on over a guy.

Maybe, he should just download Tinder and go on some dates?

Nah, that’d require talking to strangers. He could go grab coffee with Xuxi any time.

Xiaojun jerked upright in his bed.

Yangyang had said he and Xuxi went on dates.

He hadn’t even paid attention to that, but now…

Holy shit, wait, what? They went to get coffee all the time, also dinner, plus the gym, and then the sex, also Xuxi carrying him from the club and everyone calling him his boyfriend, Xuxi called him _Xiaoxiao_, had done so ever their first kiss without ever going back to Xiaojun, their endless texting sessions and Xiaojun basically oversharing every detail of his life – even more than he overshared with Guanheng.

Were he and Xuxi dating?

Nah.

Xuxi had never asked him if he wanted to be his boyfriend, they were just good friends, totally normal.

Xiaojun laid back down and closed his eyes, feeling reassured to the point that he ignored his hard-on and fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	8. Chapter 8

Turned out, fitting into skinny-skinny pants after working out for an hour and showering was about as terrible an idea as it sounded.

“Please, try to not break your leg? I’d hate having to carry you anywhere because I’m quite sure I’d collapse under your weight seeing this,” Guanheng turned his phone and Xiaojun paused his hopping up and down like the Duracell bunny in an effort to get his jeans up.

He leaned down and a smirk pulled on his lips.

It was the photo he and Xuxi had taken half an hour earlier, post-workout, in the gym’s mirror. He let his eyes drag over Xuxi’s pecs and six-pack on full display, the gleam of sweat letting it look even beefier than it was. Xuxi had both his arms up to flex them, showing off rippling muscle and shaved bronze skin for days.

Xiaojun stood next to him, looking, well, okay, he was smaller but not that terribly much. He also looked like the local gym ghost but okay. ANYWAY his gains were still visible even to a complete amateur, such as Guanheng. He had the phone in one hand, the other arm up and alining with Xuxi’s (just a lot further down because he hadn’t magically grown 20 cm), looking nice and strong. Okay, he wasn’t at 120 kg yet, and you could tell, but his improvements were clear as day.

“Don’t we look hot?” Xiaojun was very pleased with the photo and scanned the description, which was just the sunglass emoji and a flexed arm, as well as Xiaojun’s Weibo handle, linked how he had requested it’d be. He should repost it. His brother would be in shock! He had been the one to grin and say Xiaojun was just having a phase and would soon realise he couldn’t make himself some huge mountain of a man.

God, he had been so wrong, he couldn’t wait to rub this in.

“You look so hot, I first thought this was one of the porn magazines I may or may not be following. I’m not into the whole jacked-dude thing, but props to you.”

“Thank you.” Xiaojun pulled on the belt loops of his jeans and they finally settled on his hips. He groaned and buttoned them in relief.

“Are you not going to come home?” Guanheng eyed his legs.

“Ah…” Xiaojun felt a little giddy, but Xuxi’s _take our time_ was still in his ears. “No, I’m taking a change of clothes so I can avoid running back tomorrow. I hope you won’t be lonely?”

“You’re so sweet, I have plenty of homework to keep me entertained and I also downloaded Grindr which means I’ll probably have to invest hours into swiping past the rubbish with a profile there. Did you use my lube yet?” Guanheng grinned and Xiaojun was suddenly extremely busy pulling his rucksack shut.

“I don’t see how that’s your business?”

“Oooh, you totally have! I’m so excited, my little enlightened roomie, unlocking the whole potential of his body! Say, what do you call yourself? I don’t want to decide for you but I need a tag to make this easier?”

Xiaojun picked his rucksack up and it felt like it was a million pounds heavy with the bottle Guanheng had just been talking about weighing it down. He wasn’t sure how to bring it up yet, but he wanted to be prepared in case he did figure it out and Xuxi felt like it, too.

“I’m called Xiao Dejun, but I go by Xiaojun, I thought we had made that clear?”

“Har har. Very funny. Have a good night, I’m jealous and I kinda hate you and Yangyang and everyone else who leaves me as the only single in this group of traitors.”

“Yangyang’s going on one date and you call the end of times, aren’t you over-dramatic?”

“I’ll be as dramatic as I choose to be,” Guanheng was hanging off his bed now, hand on his forehead, like he was a lady in the Rococo, fainting from her corset being too tight and people around her not having showered in 10 years.

Xiaojun shook his head and closed the door behind himself.

However, instead of having a peaceful trip down the stairs (while continuously cursing his choice of clothing for making it almost impossible to take them), he ran into the last person he hoped to meet while wearing said inappropriate choice of leg-wear.

“Oh. Hi Dejun!”

“H-hi Kun. How’s it going?” Xiaojun forced a smile and wished he had taken the lift even though it rattled and sounded like it would drop into an endless abyss any moment and he never missed a chance to work his rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, and co.

“Good, the semester’s slowly starting to pick up. How are you holding up? Did you find a fun extracurricular?”

“Uuuuuh, yeah. I’m doing lab on Fridays.”

“Wonderful. It fits with your major, doesn’t it?” How did Kun talk like he had accidentally switched bodies with his grandpa (which included his sense for fashion) and still fit so perfectly with Eleven, who was basically had an honourary mention next to ‘cool’ in the dictionary and looked like an Instagram model on bad days?

Also, why did he have to talk to him, alone, showing the full potential of awkwardness he had?

“Yeah,” they had arrived on the third floor. Three more to go and he’d be free.

“Did your shower give you trouble again?”

“No, it’s fine, thank you.”

“Great, that’s good to hear. I’ve been fixing a lot of those, including my own. Eleven’s been complaining but what can you do, right?” Kun chuckled and looked like an in-love dork. Obvious visual and personality differences or not, they really were so sweet together.

“At least you can fix it yourself, right?” second floor, two more.

“That makes matters easier, it’s true, but it came down while… well, that might not be appropriate,” Kun turned an interestingly patchy shade of pink and looked away from Xiaojun. Great, the atmosphere had turned from awkward to stiflingly awkward. How fun.

“Yeah, it’s been fine in our room.”

“Great. Are you headed out? There was a traffic accident not long ago just two blocks down from the uni because of drunk driving. Please be careful when you walk around outside late at night, I hate to have to warn you about this but it’s not the first time.”

First floor, almost there. At least Kun was Olympic level good at trying to make conversation.

“Yeah, I will. I hadn’t heard of that.”

He ripped open the building’s door – free at last.

“Good. Well, I hope you’ll have a pleasant evening then,” Xiaojun muttered something in return and very quickly stalked over the square to the older buildings. He glanced over his shoulder once and realised Kun entered the building Eleven and Sicheng lived in – well, he wasn’t surprised.

The lock beeped and Xiaojun poked his head inside.

“Hey, I’m here,”

At first, there was only the lower half of Xuxi visible, then, he pushed up from where he had been leaning under his bed. A second later, fairy lights came to life.

Xiaojun stepped inside, seeing how there was room for him to open the door, and took his shoes off.

“Hey!” Xuxi beamed and Xiaojun flopped down on the bed next to him, letting him pull him closer to kiss. He wished they could do this more but it was inappropriate to kiss on the open street, obviously. It wasn’t even about two guys and their platonic kisses, it was a general rule.

“I decorated,” Xuxi whispered and Xiaojun looked around, trying to see the difference. Okay, there were the fairy light and, uh, new sheets? God, he had no eye for this stuff.

“It’s nice,” he smiled and turned to kiss Xuxi again, who sighed like he knew this was a white lie but opened up to Xiaojun’s tongue.

Immediately he felt hands on his thighs, rubbing over the tight, tight fabric, up and down, sending tingling all over his skin.

“Can you switch off the main light? It’ll be romantic like this,” Xuxi suggested and Xiaojun hesitated. Romantic?

This… this was casual, like, platonic, though, right?

Yeah, Xuxi might just like this for his personal aesthetic, he was all into that stuff.

Xiaojun scrambled off the bed and realised Xuxi was using it as an excuse to watch him in these pants, so, instead of going right for the switch, he decided to play a little. He had wiggled into these for a reason, and he still felt rather horny, too, so.

He suddenly remembered the lube in his rucksack and how he had imagined Xuxi’s fingers in himself…

He glanced over his shoulder and Xuxi was lost in staring at his ass, so, he bent down without using his knees, grabbing his rucksack, where he dove in between the clothes to find the bottle. His heart was in his throat when his fingers brushed against the plastic. He could just go back to his work-in-progress blowjob….

Or, he could do both? Or he could finger Xuxi?

There were so many options, so much to explore.

He grabbed the bottle and pushed it up his sleeve, then straightened back up.

“Are you done feasting your eyes?” Xiaojun asked, hoping to sound confident and sexy but… it might have fallen flat.

“Never, but I also want to touch so badly,” Xuxi rasped and his gaze was smouldering. Xiaojun flicked the lightswitch and was back on the bed immediately, the lube heavy in his sleeve, impossible to ignore.

Instead of innocently lying down next to him, he crawled right on top of Xuxi, sitting down on his waist, ignoring where his pants were already tenting a little.

Xuxi grabbed his thighs and squeezed them, holding him in place, and Xiaojun leaned down to kiss him, hoping to magically find the words to speak.

Unfortunately, he didn’t. Instead, he lost even more of his already unimpressive vocabulary over Xuxi massaging his thighs, going up their insides until he reached just below his dick, that twitched in its tight confinements, and then grabbed his ass, squeezing it just as much and Xiaojun moaned a little and buried his hand in the blankets next to Xuxi’s head.

“I love these pants, they’re the sexiest thing you could wear. Only naked is even better, so I can see everything. I almost jacked off over our mirror selfies, you look so hot in them,” Xuxi announced and Xiaojun groaned.

“Not as hot as you,” he managed to disagree.

“I know, I’m hard to live up to,” Xuxi chuckled airily and ran his hand down the back of Xiaojun’s thighs, before he went up on the front, just shy of his cock again. Xiaojun felt frustration build.

“You’d look even hotter if you had your piercing in, though.”

“Would I? You know, I’m not that easy. If you want nudes, you have to give some in return.”

Xiaojun nearly whimpered at the thought. His dick was pressed against the zipper now and it was uncomfortable, so, he reached down and undid it along with the button, giving it some room. Xuxi stared with dark eyes but didn’t make any move to help him, he just kept rubbing his thighs and watched Xiaojun’s cock twitch whenever he got closer to it.

“I don’t have any, you’d need to take them.”

“Oh, I would, don’t worry about that.” Xuxi’s hands rested high on his thighs, but too low down.

Xiaojun considered just touching himself but he was too shy to do so right under Xuxi’s eyes.

“Xuxi, I’ll go mad!” he finally complained when nothing happened and leaned down, connecting their lips again to kiss him and hopefully convey how turned on he was. Xuxi brought his hands to his ass and pushed him against own body, giving Xiaojun a bit of friction which let him moan and seek more.

However, Xiaojun readjusted and the lube was still there, in his sleeve, untalked about.

He pulled away.

“So,” they both said at the same time and Xiaojun quieted but so did Xuxi and they just stared, then chuckled.

“You go first,” Xuxi said and squeezed his ass a bit.

Right.

Great.

How did one do this? He couldn’t even ask his mum for help!

Xiaojun opened his sleeve and let the lube drop to the bed, where he picked it up from with shaky fingers, holding it right in front of Xuxi’s face.

“So, like, maybe, I thought, we could, perhaps, uh, you know how the male g-spot is the prostate?”

He glanced down at Xuxi, who was still inspecting the bottle but seemed to come to a conclusion on its content.

“Yeah, I know. Do you want me to find it for you?” he winked and Xiaojun slapped the lube against his own forehead, first groaning, then unable to hold the giggle over the terrible line.

“Please, don’t do that again, that was so bad!”

“But you’re laughing and I don’t feel like I’ll scare you off if I ask if you’d be up to maybe try a bit more, which is nice.”

“Wait, you had the same thought?”

“Kinda? I mean, I just wanted to make you consider because you identified as straight and probably hadn’t before.” Yeah, Xiaojun had definitely not considered he might end up on the receiving end of any of this before. It was sweet Xuxi understood that but, lucky for all of them, Guanheng had much fewer worries regarding shocking his roomie.

“Yeah, no. But yes, uh, I mean. I considered.” Xiaojun glanced down at Xuxi again.

“You already tried, didn’t you? That’s not a fresh bottle,” Xuxi grinned even wider, like it was a personal win and, in a way, it was.

“Yeah, I did.” Xiaojun tried to be smug about it but he really wasn’t, he was panicking.

“Did you like it?”

Xiaojun couldn’t even answer. He quite nearly moaned because the memory came to the front of his head - god, he had liked it. He was able to hold it in and just nodded, knowing he’d embarrass himself with his voice most likely breaking. Xuxi’s gaze got even more burning.

“How did you do it?”

“I… In the bathroom. I read a-about it before and kinda jacked off while?” Xiaojun’s voice cracked a bit but Xuxi’s gaze was so intense, he couldn’t even think twice about whether or not it was embarrassing.

“Did you think of me?” Xuxi’s voice was deep and his grab on Xiaojun’s ass might be bruising by now.

He swallowed. He had. He had 100%. The entire time. He swallowed again and looked away because he couldn’t find it in himself to admit to that. A second later, the world around him was spinning and he was underneath Xuxi within a second, the other kissing him, not holding back but showing that he didn’t seem to mind being Xiaojun’s jack-off material at all. On the contrary, it would seem.

Xiaojun just gasped and tried to kiss back but Xuxi didn’t give him much room, he just was taken on the wild ride.

Well, so far, everything with Xuxi had been great so there was no reason to worry it might stop being now. With that in mind, Xiaojun found Xuxi’s jaw, to hold onto something while the other’s hand started pushing up Xiaojun’s shirt. Xuxi had this way of licking against his tongue that made his head turn to static noise because he liked it so much and he seemed to know because he repeated the same move over and over, making Xiaojun softly moan into the kiss.

When they had to part to take his shirt off, Xiaojun took the moment to breathe and sort all his thoughts.

It seemed Xuxi was doing the same. He pulled Xiaojun up until he was in his lap. His eyes were almost black from how the pupils were blown and he stared at Xiaojun, now slightly above him because he was giving him enough leverage. Their dicks were pushing together and Xiaojun rocked forward a bit to try how it’d feel.

Xuxi let him while trailing his fingers over his back, the blind lust from a moment before replaced with both of them just enjoying to feel the other.

Xiaojun leaned down and softly kissed Xuxi, feeling his breath puff against his skin, hitching with every roll of his hips.

He felt Xuxi’s hands go lower, down his back, over the sides of his waist and onto his thighs, where the tight fabric was being pulled to its limits.

“How much did you try? How many fingers?” Xuxi asked and trailed small pecks over Xiaojun’s jaw while waiting for his reply.

It was a little blunt but Xiaojun would rather explain himself and make sure this would be good than just let his dick take over his brain (not for the first time) and go for it without a plan.

“Two and it already felt like kind of a lot?” Xiaojun admitted.

“Okay, just once?”

“Yeah, Sunday. Guanheng gave me this on Saturday,” Xiaojun started sneaking his fingers under Xuxi’s t-shirt, pushing them over his back, slowly moving further up. Xuxi’s skin was almost burning under them, his muscles tight and hard, which only fuelled Xiaojun on. Nervous or not, he couldn’t wait to find out what it might be like.

“So… if I… would you like… I mean… I’d really like to finger you? If you don’t mind? Or if it’s more comfortable, you can finger me, but I love to make you feel good and, you know, uh, maybe do the actual sex thing in the future? If you want? Only if you want, of course! I mean, we can discuss that again before we do, just uh… yeah.” Xuxi was so cute in how he worded his request, Xiaojun had to lean in to give him a ridiculously smacking kiss on the cheek.

“What you’re saying is, that you prefer to top?” Xiaojun was unsure how he had ended up being the one on top (pun intended) of this conversation, but here he was, a true intellectual, educated in the ins and outs of sex-terms.

“Yeah, kinda. But we don’t need to tie ourselves down, that’d be boring and I do like things in my ass, don’t get me wrong, I’m not an idiot who’ll pretend I don’t have a prostate. I just like the idea of taking care of you and making you feel amazing. It’s also kinda a size thing, like, we could, right now, theoretically, be fucking and still kissing. That’d be super awesome. So, I mean to say we could and should switch but I have a preference for topping. Okay, great, now I made it awkward.”

Xiaojun laughed and leaned down, kissing Xuxi’s pouty lips and rolled his hips a bit, giving both of them friction that made Xuxi moan against his lips.

“Okay, so, you’ll finger me tonight? And you? Do you feel up to more terrible blowjobs?” Xiaojun was giddy and nervous, but also excited and eager to get to the part where he’d spread his legs and feel Xuxi inside him.

“I loved your first try. I’m sure I’ll love your second as well, if you feel like it?” Xuxi really was the most amazing friend to let Xiaojun suck his dick again after the first time. He needed to kiss him again just because he appreciated it so much – appreciated Xuxi and everything about him!

“I read some more and I think I can do better!” Xiaojun explained when he pulled away and Xuxi smiled and didn't quite let him go yet but kissed him again, and it just felt so comfortable and perfect…

“Of course, you read about it. That’s the cutest thing and so typical for you,” Xiaojun’s face burnt but he loved that Xuxi complimented that part of his personality. Because he was right, he liked reading and informing himself via books.

Xiaojun pulled Xuxi’s shirt up and the other helped him strip it off. Immediately, Xiaojun’s eyes caught on his favourite piece of jewellery. Xuxi must have immediately put it back in after the gym – maybe because he knew how much Xiaojun loved it?

Who would he be to turn that clear invitation down? He was sure he’d fit in a moment to play with it.

“Condoms?” Xiaojun asked and Xuxi nodded. They scrambled off each other and Xuxi fetched the pack, throwing it next to the lube.

“Who goes first?” Xuxi asked, “I don’t see 69 being successful yet, I think we need more practice before that.”

Xiaojun shook his head. He was not confident he could suck any dick without guidance and he much less could do so while having fingers in his ass, he was 1000% sure of that.

“I… don’t think I’ll be good for anything after coming. I’m already not normally,” Xiaojun admitted.

“Oh, yeah, I noticed that. So, me first?” Xuxi looked excited at the prospect and much less like his heart was nearing 500 beats a minute and Xiaojun hoped to use his energy to calm down (from 500 beats a minute) to the appropriate amount of nervous.

Which raised the question, what that would be? 400 beats?

“Okay, how about you just lay down?” Xiaojun needed to distract himself from already jumping ahead and thinking of later when this lube would be put to better use… He wanted to focus on Xuxi right now, make him feel amazing, then face his nerves and figure everything else out.

With Xuxi, it had always been comfortable, sex or other situations, he could trust him!

“Pants off?” Xuxi looked like he had forgotten Xiaojun’s teeth on his dick, which just was great and Xiaojun would try extra hard to not remind him this time.

“Off!” Xiaojun nodded and opened the pack of condoms, only to realise they were down to two. Well. Someone would have to make that trip to the convenience store but it’d suffice for today.

Xuxi, wearing comfortable pants and not these godforsaken skinny jeans, was done in a second flat and got comfortable on the bed, while Xiaojun struggled for about ten times as long until he had freed himself and also crawled back on the bed, straddling Xuxi’s thighs. He had left his underwear on just to keep his own priorities in check.

Xuxi was hard, his dick curving against his stomach, darker than the tan skin, the tip a little shiny.

Xiaojun was already quite well acquainted with it now, he knew Xuxi loved it when he twisted up and downwards, so, he gave him a few pumps before ripping the foil package and rolling the condom on.

He glanced up and saw Xuxi had propped himself up a bit, eyes on him, dark and full of desire.

It was so hot and also so encouraging, Xiaojun wanted to kiss him and thank him, but that’d also be weird and he was too far away for kissing.

However, he did stretch up a bit, hoping to not look like a complete dork but maybe somewhat sexy, and let his hands travel up Xuxi’s torso. The muscle tightened under them and Xiaojun never broke their eye-contact, so, he knew Xuxi knew where he was going.

It might be sort of obvious because Xiaojun just had a slight obsession with his nipples, as proved several times before.

Good thing, that Xuxi seemed to very much like having them played with. The piercing didn’t come from nowhere, after all.

He brushed his fingers over them, the bar on the left making that one automatically harder, and Xuxi sighed in content, letting his eyes fall shut and head loll back. Xiaojun circled a finger around the dusty skin, letting it catch on the piercing how it made Xuxi’s dick twitch, then pushed his thumbs against the undersides, teasing them both to hardness.

“Xiaoxiao, please,” Xuxi whispered, his voice impossibly deep and scratchy.

“Hm? We wanted to take our time, right?” Xiaojun innocently asked and flicked over the left, ripping a groan from Xuxi as he tried to buck up but failed because of Xiaojun sitting on his thighs and pinning him down.

“You’re such a little demon!” Xuxi whispered but didn’t move to stop him and Xiaojun didn’t. He just grinned and kept circling, flicking, and pinching Xuxi’s nipples while the other’s moans got deeper and breathier until he was happy with how flushed and sweaty Xuxi looked, mouth slightly agape, looking his absolutely sexiest.

Though, arguably, there were multiple sexiest-states of the Huang Xuxi.

Xiaojun went back down and pulled his hands over Xuxi’s torso and his abs until he could wrap them around his cock, which immediately made Xuxi moan so gutturally, Xiaojun felt a little bad for neglecting it.

Then again, his own dick was kind of painfully hard, too. Small sacrifices would have to be made to feel even better later.

Xiaojun used his hand because he knew how to do that and it’d take the edge off for Xuxi. He stared up at how the other slowly came back to it, opening his eyes and fixing Xiaojun in this intense stare he had. It only turned Xiaojun on more.

He wanted to make Xuxi feel good!

He scooted back a bit, so he could bend down and lick over the tip like it was a lollipop, never looking away.

“Fuck, Xiaoxiao, you’re killing me,” Xuxi grunted and Xiaojun couldn’t hold a small grin before he circled his tongue around the crown, once, twice, trying to ignore the taste of plastic and banana (yes, Xuxi had banana flavoured condoms) and just focus on Xuxi’s dick. Maybe, in the future, they could do this without.

Which then would involve a whole set of different tastes and fluids and… yeah, he was pretty grateful for the artificial banana.

When he closed his lips around it, Xiaojun couldn’t hold the gaze anymore, having to look down to fit the entire girth and avoid teeth. As he kept giving the base small pumps with his hand, he sunk down as far as he could, holding his thumb how he had read helped with his gag reflex. It might work but he also stopped before it got too much. He hallowed his cheeks and rose back up, hearing a beautiful moan from Xuxi which helped him figure out what he was doing and if it was the right thing.

He repeated to move up and down a few times, and he felt saliva start to make everything wet and more slippery.

He pulled off and immediately moved down the side, licking against the veins he could feel through the thin barrier. Xuxi moaned and shifted underneath him to try and deal, which was a power-rush in itself.

Xiaojun wanted to ask if it felt good, just to be cocky, but he didn’t because he knew it did from how Xuxi expressed himself.

The wetness made it easier to move his hand and when he went back to taking Xuxi’s dick in his mouth, he didn’t just focus on the base but everything he couldn’t fit, moving his hand in time with his head. He settled in a rhythm he could hold, licking over the tip whenever he reached it, then going right back down, pressing his tongue against the underside and sucking as hard as he could

“Xiao… oh fuck…” Xuxi sounded wrecked and Xiaojun wished he could see his face, so, he glanced up through his lashes and met Xuxi’s eyes just barely. The other groaned and dropped his head back. Xiaojun realised Xuxi was pulling on the sheets, his entire body tight, and he felt so turned on knowing it was because of him that Xuxi was in this state.

He sunk down as far as he could, ignoring that his throat constricted a little, and that was what did it. Xuxi groaned and cursed under his breath and Xiaojun felt his dick twitch in his mouth and slowed the bobbing of his head while he filled the condom.

When he was done, he pulled off and sat back up. He stared down at Xuxi, who still had his eyes closed and was catching his breath. He just needed a moment, then, he grabbed Xiaojun and pulled him down and against his chest.

“Liked that?” Xiaojun hoped to sound aloof and confident but he sounded rather breathless. Well. Whatever.

“So much. So, so much. You look a mess,” Xuxi smiled and wiped Xiaojun’s wet chin, which he hadn’t even thought about. Xiaojun felt a bit embarrassed but Xuxi didn’t let him dwell on it but angled his head down to kiss. Xiaojun considered protesting because he still tasted plastic banana, but he really didn’t care if Xuxi didn’t, so, he let him suck on his tongue while he came down from his high.

“Let’s change,” Xuxi finally rasped and scrambled up to get rid of the used condom and clean up a little. Xiaojun had been effectively distracted, but now, the nerves really hit. Xuxi hooked two fingers into Xiaojun’s underwear and slowly dragged it down his legs, appreciating the view as he went.

“Should I use your lube?” Xuxi asked, scooting to settled comfortably on the mattress.

“You’re asking the wrong person here, I have zero experience with this,” Xiaojun softly admitted, unsure where to even sit/lie/whatever else? Xuxi found the bottle where it had been abandoned earlier and read the label for a second, then nodded.

“This is good, as expected of Guanheng,” he looked up and Xiaojun felt a bit calmer just from Xuxi’s dark eyes on him, reassuring him it’d be fine because it always was with Xuxi, “Do you feel comfortable lying down? It’d be easiest for me because of gravity and stuff.”

Gravity and stuff? Right, whatever.

“Y-yeah, sure, h-how?”

Xiaojun awkwardly shuffled around and nearly whimpered because his dick was sensitive and neglected even though it had gone down a bit due to his nervousness.

Suddenly, Xuxi grabbed him and pulled him into his lap, making Xiaojun yelp in surprise but not for more than a second because then, his dick was comfortably rested against Xuxi’s lower abs and the other held him by his hips, gently kissing him.

“I’m nervous. You’re, too, aren’t you?” Xuxi whispered and Xiaojun nodded.

“Haven’t you don’t this before, though?”

“Yeah, but, I don’t know, it’s really different with you. But I only want you to feel good, okay, no pressure, nothing, right?”

“Yeah,” Xiaojun was thankful for the reminder and kissed Xuxi just to really reinforce that this was fine, this was Xuxi, it’d be good or they’d manage to make it good because they always did.

“It’d really help me if you were vocal. Even if you don’t like it, don’t hesitate to tell me?” Xuxi pushed Xiaojun’s hair from his forehead.

“Can your ego take that?” Xiaojun chuckled and Xuxi pouted playfully, “Sorry. Okay. I will let you know even if you fuck up.”

“Good! Let me take care of you, okay?” Xuxi’s eyes were so intense, Xiaojun felt like he was under a spell, but he managed to nod and Xuxi slowly moved him until his back hit the mattress, caged against it how he was so often.

Xiaojun realised his legs were already open because he had been sitting in Xuxi’s lap, and he tried not to think about it too much. Because it was a very vulnerable position and while he trusted Xuxi fully, it was still new and intimidating.

The cap of the bottle snapped open and Xiaojun watched Xuxi pour out a much more appropriate amount, than he had previously used, and start to spread it over his fingers.

“Oh, they didn’t play when they formulated this,” Xuxi mumbled and watched his own fingers become slippery and shiny with the lube.

“Do you think Guanheng jokes around? I think not,” Xiaojun breathily chipped in and Xuxi chuckled.

“Let’s not tell him I doubted him or I might not make it to the next day,” he stroked his hand against Xiaojun’s jaw and pushed his head up so he no longer watched every move and instead got lost in Xuxi’s eyes until he was too close and Xiaojun let them fall shut as he kissed him, slow, but a bit sloppy, telling that Xuxi wasn’t as calm as he was trying to make himself appear.

Xiaojun was glad he wasn’t. It made it easier if they both were a bit nervous.

It somehow made it feel, well, more intimate to know that this was something special to Xuxi as well. He hadn’t thought about it much but he had expected Xuxi to be experienced and confident.

It was nicer when it turned out he wasn’t.

Xiaojun’s breath hitched when he felt a warm and slick hand around his cock, slowly stroking upwards, teasing over the tip, and pushing back down, again and again until he was fully hard, bucking into his fist a little in an effort to try and get more.

Xuxi slowly parted their kiss and moved down his neck, sucking on the skin just shy of leaving bruises and Xiaojun couldn’t even be nervous anymore because it felt so good, even when he let his hand drop from his dick, further down until he reached his hole.

Xiaojun knew he needed to relax and he tried but when Xuxi circled a finger around the opening, he twitched and tensed on instinct.

Xuxi had reached his shoulder and sucked a dark mark onto it while he kept massaging his rim, pushing against the muscle ever so slightly, and Xiaojun was slowly able to let go and allow the touch. Xuxi bit the skin on his chest before licking over it, further distracting him and pulling him into a zone of pure pleasure.

The more familiar the fingers on his ass got, the easier it was to react to Xuxi’s ministrations. Xiaojun could let his legs open just a little more and opened his eyes to look at Xuxi, who finished off by leaving a hickey around his nipple, which were nowhere near as sensitive as Xuxi’s own but seemed to react just a little more the more often he played with them.

“You feel good physically, do you feel good, too?” Xuxi whispered and moved back up to face Xiaojun again.

It was weird, to talk while he kept playing with his ass, but Xiaojun swallowed and nodded, “Yeah.”

Xuxi smiled in relief and placed a final peck on his nose before he sat up and grabbed the lube again to add more. It was a little cold at first but warmed right up and since he no longer had to hold himself up, Xuxi now used his free hand to lazily wrap the fingers around Xiaojun’s dick, setting a very slow pace. Again, the lube made it so easy and feel different from how it normally did.

Xiaojun just missed being able to kiss and feel Xuxi’s warmth radiate against his skin.

Then, his thoughts came to a screeching halt when he felt Xuxi push a finger against him, applying just a bit of pressure until the muscle gave way.

Despite this obviously having been the goal, Xiaojun was so surprised he gasped and clenched down to avoid the intrusion.

“Sorry, should have warned you,” Xuxi stilled his finger and moved his hand a bit quicker on his cock to soothe him. Xiaojun shook his head, still too breathless to talk, and somehow managed to unclench his muscles.

“Sorry, just happened,” his voice was a little shaky.

“Don’t be sorry, totally normal,” Xuxi assured him with a deep velvet voice that did wonders to make Xiaojun feel safe and comfortable again until he could mutter for Xuxi to go on.

He pushed deeper into him and the difference in size was very noticeable now. Xuxi held still and allowed Xiaojun to get used to the feeling of being full. Even if it was only one finger and really not that much, he needed the break so he could breathe properly and let his body open.

“It feels okay,” he whispered, remembering Xuxi’s wish to know.

Xuxi nodded and started to pull out a bit only to push right back in, small moves that helped Xiaojun adjust even better and it didn’t feel as thick as it first had anymore. When Xuxi twisted his finger while pulling out and it matched with an upwards stroke on his dick, Xiaojun moaned softly. Okay, it already felt much better than the first time.

“You’re doing so well, you’re relaxing for me so well, Xiaoxiao,” Xuxi whispered and Xiaojun preened under the compliment but he also realised it was thanks to Xuxi being himself, being this perfect person to do this with, that he could relax how he did.

Xiaojun didn’t instinctually pull away when he felt the second finger press against his rim after a while, massaging against the warm muscle until it opened to allow it to push into him next to the first.

“Oh god,” Xiaojun had to close his eyes, suddenly overwhelmed by so many things going on with this increase of intensity. His hand flew down and stilled Xuxi’s hand on his dick, which the other luckily immediately understood, pausing while Xiaojun tried to take a deep breath. He needed multiple tries to do it.

He had not expected this to be this different, but it was.

“Talk to me, please?” Xuxi gently asked, stroking his now free hand over Xiaojun’s thigh.

“Just a lot, maybe try just fingers, leave my dick alone?” he pressed out because he didn’t want to stop, he just needed a bit less or he’d probably cry from being overwhelmed.

Xuxi carefully pushed his middle finger all the way into him. It was a lot, but his body was able to accommodate it. With being able to only focus on only this and how it made his toes curl, it was much better, just the right amount of intense.

“Good, yeah,” Xiaojun whispered and mentally prepared himself for more before he let Xuxi know he could take it.

The other softly mumbled small praises while he rocked his hand back and forth until Xiaojun was loose enough to allow bigger thrusts. As it got more comfortable, it also got more pleasurable. Every move let his skin burn hotter, feeling satisfying and making him anticipate the next thrust. He didn’t hold back on the small moans and Xuxi reacted to them by trying more and only continuing if it made Xiaojun louder, stopping when it had the opposite effect.

Finally, when he was comfortable and relaxed, no longer overwhelmed and shaky, he felt Xuxi crook his fingers and stroke over his walls.

“Little lower,” Xiaojun gasped, knowing what Xuxi was looking for and where to find it. He easily followed the direction and rubbed his fingers over it with just enough pressure to send sparks through his body. It was perfect, practised, and made Xiaojun close his legs around Xuxi’s hips and buck up against the air, whimpering in need.

“Fuck, Xiaoxiao, look at you,” Xuxi whispered but Xiaojun was sure he looked like a complete mess and he also didn’t even have any brain capacity to open his eyes, trying to cope with Xuxi gently massaging his sweet spot so much better than he had managed to with his own clumsy first try.

He wanted to say something, maybe thank him, but every word just broke off into a moan, his body arching off the bed as far as it could and Xuxi just kept doing what blew any thought from Xiaojun’s mind, leaving him just squirming and moaning in pleasure.

“Xuxi,” was all he could force out in between gasps. Xuxi seemed to enjoy it and he kept moving, trying more or less pressure, harder or smaller thrusts that pushed Xiaojun to the edge of insanity because it was so good.

With every push into him, his gut tightened, his orgasm building. Yet, it was out of reach. It was so much and felt so good, but it wasn’t quite enough. Xiaojun needed to touch himself, his cock was aching, but his fingers were tangled up in the sheets, stuck because every move made him shiver and hold on tighter and Xuxi didn’t give him a break.

He had lost any sense of time. It could have been only two minutes or two hours of Xuxi playing with him, pushing him far over the edge without him actually being able to fall.

His rim started to tingle from the stretch and the friction continuously being put on it and Xiaojun was just blind in need, he had to cum or he’d cry. He might already be crying for all he knew. He managed to unhook his left hand, even though it was his bad one, and somehow grabbed his dick, tugging on it in a frenzy. All it took, was to press his finger under the crown how he liked it and he was cumming, an actual small scream ripping from his lips because he had been so worked up. His entire body clenched down while he came even harder than he had the first time doing this.

Xuxi worked him through it, dragging it out but, thankfully, stilled when he started to become oversensitivity and he just waited until Xiaojun stopped shaking.

Immediate tiredness and exhaustion fell over him, like a heavy blanket. That, and the need to hold someone close.

“Xuxi?” Xiaojun forced one eye open and saw the other get a towel, with which he crawled back onto the bed.

He leaned over Xiaojun and immediately found his lips to kiss him. It soothed the feeling of sudden loneliness in Xiaojun’s chest and made him feel warm and comfortable instead. Loved. He felt loved.

“Was that okay?” Xuxi asked carefully like Xiaojun hadn’t just gotten his entire worldview of what an orgasm could be like recalibrated.

“I’ve never cum so hard in my life, don’t you have eyes?” Xiaojun whined sleepily and Xuxi giggled.

“I do. I also have ears. I committed everything to memory and I will replay it until the end of times whenever I get off because, fuck, you were the sexiest person I ever laid eyes upon. I wish you could see yourself, how you just pushed against me – I can’t even describe it.” Xuxi kissed him again and Xiaojun tried to kiss back and not fall asleep but he was so happy and sated.

He let Xuxi push his legs open once more to get rid of most of the lube and the cum and by the time Xuxi joined him under the blankets, Xiaojun realised his dick was stiff but he was almost half asleep.

“When did you get hard again?” he mumbled and pressed himself against Xuxi, feeling the metal of his piercing against his own nipple.

He reached down and wrapped a hand around the base, slowly starting to stroke him.

“Some… some time. How could I not? It’s physically impossible. Can I?” he wrapped his own hand around Xiaojun and picked the pace up. It felt familiar, only this time, Xiaojun had already made sure he was awake for Xuxi’s first high.

He just let the other use his hand as deadweight and lazily kissed against the neck, sucking on the skin a little, how Xuxi usually did. He wasn’t sure if it was enough to leave love bites but it might have been and when Xuxi came with a soft gasp, he was too tired to stay awake until after the second clean-up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	9. Chapter 9

Xiaojun’s head was in the clouds for the rest of the week.

During his tutorials, he found himself thinking about when he’d meet Xuxi again, during lunch, he stared into the endless abyss of white on the wall while Eleven and Kun fed each other next to him and left permanent emotional damage on Yangyang (according to his own words if Xiaojun remembered correctly, he had been lost in thought whether or not Xuxi was doing fine in his geology I course), and on his way to the gym, he was so busy staring at their mirror selfie from yesterday, he ran into a very small and cute girl, whom he apologised tenfold to and received the number of in return for reasons unknown.

“You’ve got it so bad, holy shit, I’ve never seen someone this lost a case, did you see the light on Tuesday or something? You’ve been out of it ever since.” Guanheng pushed Xiaojun aside to squeeze himself next to him and placed his tablet against the headboard, starting the Disney movie Xiaojun ‘needed to see oh my god how can you not know Mulan it’s literally a queer classic’. So that was how they were spending Friday night, instead of getting drunk, which was good since Xiaojun had no funds to get drunk.

Had Xiaojun seen the light? Probably. His vision had sort of turned white when he had come. 

“What are you even talking about? I’m perfectly fine!” Xiaojun was already bored by the plot. He preferred it when things blew up on screen he couldn’t really relate to a girl feeding chicken. Not like he could relate to people blowing things up and firing 100 shots a minute but that was exciting at the very least.

“I’m talking about Xuxi and you. Oh! Did you fuck for the first time?”

“No, we didn’t and it’s also none of your business.”

“Fine, whatever, now pay attention, it’s literally a masterpiece and deserves nothing but the utmost respect."

Xiaojun yawned and felt his eyes grow droopy. He and Xuxi had done a very stupid experiment with bromine earlier and Xiaojun was still waiting for symptoms of poisoning to show, but Xuxi had been excited.

He checked his phone while people got in line to get matched by the matchmaker. No new messages. Well, Xuxi had taken the train to Tianjin airport to pick his father and mother up, so he was probably busy and Xiaojun totally got it, but still.

He tried to pay attention but now there was a slow song going on and sleep was rapidly sounding like a better idea.

He glanced over to Guanheng, in hopes of suggesting to possibly switch to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but Guanheng was fixed on the screen, eyes shiny from unshed tears.

Xiaojun swallowed and turned back as well. This was probably pretty disrespectful. He decided to listen to the last half of the song and… well, it was sort of… nice and….

Well, then the heroine took a fucking sword to cut her hair and Xiaojun was sold.

Did he point out the very hot army-thing-guy, who graciously waltzed around topless half the time? It was wonderful until it wasn’t because shit got real and Xiaojun found himself gasping when her identity was revealed and they left her in the snow to fend for herself.

By the time the end credits rolled, Xiaojun was ready to re-watch and possibly make room for this film on his top 10 list of favourites.

Upon voicing that, he was roped into watching first Frozen, which was nice, then Tangled, which really strained it, and finally fell asleep over Arielle and dreamt of Guanheng in the role of prince Eric and himself as the flounder… it had been very disturbing and he was luckily ripped from that trip down into lower layers of his subconsciousness by his alarm to go soap shopping.

The campus was swarmed by families.

At 10 am.

Xiaojun was horrified but he also remembered having been a pupil just a year prior and visiting Sun Yet-sen and Jinan University at similarly inhumane hours and being excited. He had been young and not known any better.

Between the masses of people, it seemed impossible to find the stall where their soaps were sold. Getting a map of campus would have probably helped, or asking for directions, but Xiaojun was too proud to do either. He had gotten second place during campus rally, he'd find some student-project-vendor-stand, right? 

Well.

During his search, he was nearly recruited for five different sports clubs, probably thanks to his impeccable physique, offered to take mock-entrance exams, yikes, he had taken them once and never again, please, and given a pamphlet for what had to be a cult.

He also found Chengxiao at the stall of the Physics department, talking animatedly to two girls, who looked like they had spontaneously developed crushes. How sweet.

After a lot of struggling and with his cult-flyer in hand, Xiaojun did find their soaps. See? He had known he would. No need for any help (if you ignored it had taken him an entire hour).

There was exactly one rose type left, which he bought for a whopping 30 Yuan. To do so, he had to re-activate his Alipay and also went into the negatives, which meant a fun call to his father and begging for more money, preferably by midnight so he wouldn't have to pay interest on his emergency loan.

The soap smelt even better, now that it had set and the scent had had the chance to unfold its full potential. It reminded him so much of Xuxi. He probably used something with roses, which would make sense seeing how that was his self-announced favourite. It would truly be a fitting gift… aside from the fact that Xuxi had basically made this for himself.

Xiaojun smiled to himself while finding his way to Chengxiao and tell her hello before planning to return to the safety of his room where he didn’t have to talk to any strangers.

“Hey, Xiaojun, what are you doing here, I never knew you were a representative?” Chengxiao pushed her long hair behind her ear and beamed.

“I’m not. I just went to buy something. How are you holding up?”

He found himself pulled behind the desk, which, was he now betraying his actual department? Was this treason? Would he be ex-matriculated over this?? Shunned??? Banned????

“Well, very well. Smile politely and draw some girls in, will you?”

Xiaojun, slightly scared, smiled politely into the crowd shuffling by.

“Are you only recruiting girls?” he asked, glancing down the table of the department to where another three students were, two of which involved with kids and parents.

“Noooo,” he waved her hands before reconsidering, “Yes. Yes, I am. Oh, speaking of recruiting for the dark side, we’re still looking for some people who can make some neat chemical reactions that look impressive for the cultural fair next weekend. You and Xuxi don’t happen to have time? I’m sure we can talk the chem department into borrowing us some stuff.”

“That’s a bit too spontaneous, isn’t it?” Xiaojun felt like this was the sort of stuff that got you accidentally involved in a gang. A short-notice offer you could hardly turn down and from there to drugs, it was just a small step.

“Do we look like we have good organisational skills? I don’t think so. I wish I was Xuanyi, but I’m not. So. We’re representing the uni which only happened because every department is so damn lazy and we’re the only ones pulling our weight. No offence but the bio department is actually the worst out of all science. I feel like all they do is smoke Oregano.”

“Wait, you represent the stuff like history, too? Could we talk about dinosaurs?” Xiaojun perked up but their discussion was interrupted by a girl with her father coming over.

Xiaojun dozed off, not familiar with Newtown and his dudes, while Chengxiao held a flaming pitch for physics.

When she was done, she seamlessly picked back up.

“We only represent science, sorry, should have made that clear. There’s a few other representatives going for languages and philosophy and I don’t know what. We just need to look cool. We already look cooler than they could ever hope to, but we also compete against stuff like a traditional Hanfu booth and food stalls. Did I mention there’ll be a concert for which they invited acts from their partner cities?”

“What kind of concert? Classical?” Xiaojun was interested.

Chengxiao sighed deeply, “Now you’re more interested in the concert as well. No, they invited some pop stars or something. I don’t really know my way around those from outside of China but the line-up is secret anyway.”

“Ah, okay, I thought maybe there’d be some orchestra in a partner city. Too bad. Well, I don’t know, I’ll ask Xuxi but it sounds like a nice weekend plan.” he'd be very careful so the next favour she asked wouldn't be smuggling arms or cooking meth. He couldn't be too cautious when it came to those kinds of stuff, from what he had heard. Gangs were sneaky and once you were in… 

“Wonderful, I’ll be… oh! Look at that, you’ll get the chance to ask him right away.”

Xiaojun was confused for only a moment, then, he spotted a familiar head of raven hair sticking out between much shorter people, two of them, actually, one already going a little grey.

Immediately, he felt his smile grow wider. Xuxi’s spotted him and it seemed like he was just as pleasantly surprised.

“Yooo!” he slammed a huge hand on the table, “I was just stepping by to introduce my parents, I didn’t expect you here! So, mum, dad, this is Chengxiao whom I told you about, and this is Xiaoxiao, I mean, Dejun.”

Xiaojun hoped he wasn’t blushing because Xuxi was using a cute nickname for him when he was not really the right person on the receiving end of one – even less in front of his parents. It wasn’t like they were dating.

Small embarrassments or not, Xiaojun was madly excited to meet the people who had raised Xuxi and find out whom he took after in which way.

“Ah! It’s so nice to meet you!” The small lady, who had to be his mum, beamed and bowed. She had the same type of accent as Eleven and the same blinding smile as Xuxi, while his father was a bit more subdued and between this couple, really, there had been no other option but have the most handsome son possible. They were both stunning!

“Nice t-to meet you, too.” Xiaojun stuttered, to ensure he was making the worst possible first impression, and bowed together with Chengxiao, who giggled and nudged him under the table like she was trying to tell him something but he didn’t know what.

They quickly got an introduction to the department and accepted a flyer before Xuxi herded them away, to the next stall.

Xiaojun looked after them for entirely too long. To be more precise, he was looking at Xuxi’s ass. It might not be huge but it sure was tight and well-shaped and…

“Oh my god, he introduced you, with nickname, oh my god!” Chengxiao hit his arm and Xiaojun jerked away.

“Yeah, so?”

“Oh my god! Are you going to have dinner or something? Well, maybe it’s still too early? But oh my god!” she hit him again and Xiaojun accepted his fate as a punching-bag (not for the first time, he was friends with many violently excited people).

“No, we aren’t, why should we?”

“Yeah, I know, it’s still too early.” Yeah, it obviously was way too early for dinner, it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.

Deciding that he wouldn’t understand whatever she was talking about, he finally bid her goodbye and marched back to his dorm building, where he put the piece of soap on his nightstand and started tackling his homework.

Since he hadn’t been able to ask between being introduced and totally non-creepily watching his parents, to conclude which mannerism and which facial features came from which side of the family, he sent Xuxi a text regarding the chemistry stuff. He also added how amazing his ass had looked. They often did that.

He didn’t really do that with any of his other friends, but he had heard straight girls often complimented each other on their clothes and hair, so, it surely was something very straight to do, right?

Additionally, he looked up what kind of culture festival it even was because that seemed like a reasonable and mature thing to do (also, he was making sure there wouldn’t be any money laundering there or possible human trafficking. One could never be too careful). It looked fun enough. And legal. The government was involved and other governments, too, because the partner cities would be represented. That seemed like a big enough confirmation there was no reason to worry.

Also, there would be food.

And he’d spend time with Xuxi, which seemed the most important part in this whole situation (and life in general)

Xuxi replied he liked the idea and that his parents had suggested he came to have dinner with them to meet them and get to know him - if he wanted to.

It would fit very well with Xiaojun’s whole post-homework hunger situation that was sure to hit in just a few hours. He also remembered he had to call his dad to beg for money, so, he agreed and then dialled the man’s number.

His father asked where his allowance had gone and Xiaojun had failed to think of a reason better than buying soap.

His father didn’t believe him. He said he had been a young student once, too. Xiaojun felt offended and called out but whining never flew with his dad because it ‘wasn’t manly’.

Life was unfair. 

At least this dinner was going to be non-cafeteria and non-paid-with-his-kidney-for.

“I’ll be gone for dinner with Xuxi and his parents. I’ll be back not too late, I think.” Xiaojun shrugged on his leather jacket - that, by the way, was fitting his arms so much better. He looked quite hot, if he may say so himself. 

Guanheng looked up from his mirror, where he had been trying to pop some tiny blemish… or… well, it used to be a tiny blemish, now, it was a huge red mark and he looked like a clown.

“You what now?”

“I’m getting dinner,” Yummy dinner, probably. Xiaojun had never eaten Thai food before (as far as he knew) but it had a great reputation. Millions of people wouldn’t be wrong.

“With his family?” Guanheng slowly repeated.

“Yeah. As I just said, didn’t you listen or something?”

Guanheng blinked once, twice, and Xiaojun turned to leave his roommate and his weird antics.

The city centre was reasonably busy for the hour and Xiaojun even found the restaurant thanks to strictly following his phone’s directions (he would have totally found it by himself, too, this was just to be extra sure because he didn’t want to be late). He also ran into yet another girl, which seemed to just be a tragic new thing, and got her number over his apologies, which was nice but he wasn’t sure what to do with it.

He spotted Xuxi and his equally unnecessarily tall father even before Xuxi raised his arm to wave – and in the process hit the waitress.

So, it started off wonderfully with all of them wiping up drinks and very flustered staff.

Xiaojun got it. He would have panicked if three super-models were suddenly wiping his floors, too. He was also just living in this world where a family had the audacity to be so collectively good-looking.

“It’s so nice to officially meet you, Xuxi told us so much already, so, we thought it would only be appropriate to invite you and get the chance to meet you ourselves. We hope it isn’t too early?” his mother beamed once they had settled back down.

“Uh, no, it’s fine, I usually eat around this time.”

The entire table broke into laughter and Xiaojun was unsure how it had been funny but happy to have been the one to make them laugh and not let awkward silence spread. 

“You’re just as funny as Xuxi said you were,” Mrs Huang looked like she approved of his non-existent sense of humour, which was great. Xiaojun thanked her without understanding – really, such a useful skill to have, he had developed it from his previous favourite: nodding without understanding.

“So, your major is biology but you’re also interested in archaeology?” his father asked. He was slightly intimidating but he smiled kindly. With Xuxi here, Xiaojun’s sudden stranger-phobia was also doing a whole lot better, never mind this was Xuxi senior – it’d be fine.

“Yeah, actually, we even have the same preferences, we both prefer primaeval and ancient life forms,” would it be childish to talk about dinosaurs? Probably. He kind of wanted to look cool in front of the Huangs.

“Yes, he told us all about that,” Xuxi’s mum squeezed her son’s cheek and Xuxi struggled from the hold, face flushing, and said something in a mysterious tongue (probably Thai) to which his mum replied, looking vastly entertained.

“Where are you from, Dejun?” Xuxi’s father distracted him from internally cooing over Xuxi and almost taking the next chance to look like an utter dork. Bless him.

“I’m from Guangzhou, originally. I came here because, well, I liked the city and the university program overall.”

“Oh Guangzhou, that’s close, no wonder I felt familiar with your accent,” Mr Huang laughed.

“Are you originally from Hong Kong?” Xiaojun asked like he was an actual adult who knew how to hold conversations. Wow, Kun was probably shaking and worrying for his title as Olympic champion at this very moment.

“Yes, Hong Kong born and raised. I’m married to my wife, but my true love will always be the skyline from Kowloon,” Mr Huang beamed.

“He even said that to me, two weeks into our relationship. And my family still had the guts to say he was just sweet-talking me and didn’t mean it seriously. Ah. I’m glad my Xuxi didn’t get his dad’s lack of sense when it comes to the finer details of romance. I just worry for my little one, though, just as much an oaf as his dad,” she sighed and shook her head before putting some chicken on Xiaojun’s plate to try, “Right, my Xuxi hasn’t told you his one true love would always be this ridiculous car he wants so much?” Mrs Huang now looked very worried.

Xiaojun shook his head slowly. He didn’t see how it would be relevant seeing how he wasn’t planning to marry Xuxi, but no, if anything, it would probably be himself announcing to choose his first dinosaur photobook over Xuxi.

He wouldn’t.

Probably.

It was a very good photobook, heavy and glossy paper, with feather-reconstructions…

“Mum, stop embarrassing me!”

“Yes, yes, I was just making sure, we can’t have you scaring off boys,” she squeezed Xuxi’s cheek again and Xuxi looked like he might soon combust.

Xiaojun was having a great time, even if Xuxi was suffering a bit.

Or maybe because?

“I love hearing more details about your life,” he announced because he did.

Hey!

Maybe, his mum had baby photos of Xuxi?

Or that was maybe a bit too early to ask…

They descended into easy talk over his major, their shared lab, and then dove head-first into exercising and Xiaojun realised that his father seemed to be Xuxi’s original source of all the information on nutrition he had.

Honestly, Xiaojun could only hope to even gain this much biceps (seeing how Mr Huang also had at least 15 cm on him, he doubted he’d ever look as impressive) much less still have it aged dad-age (how old was this man, he looked about 30 but that didn’t make sense).

And his mum DID have baby photos.

He almost forgot to eat as much as he could physically manage - almost. Since Xuxi and his mum kept putting more on his plate, he was spared the terrible fate of missing out on anything.

It wasn't his own mum and stepdad who had come, but when they parted so they could return to their respective homes and hotels, Xiaojun felt as re-energised as if it had been his own family praising him, listening to him, feeding him. 

"And? How was it? Was it okay? Do you like them? Sorry, I invited you on such short notice but it felt like it was a good idea and you looked like you had fun. Did you have fun? Was the food good? It was, right? Almost as good as my mum's." Xuxi looked down at him with puppy eyes and Xiaojun laughed. He understood. If he had introduced Xuxi to his parents, he would have wanted him to like them as well. Because they were the best - obviously.

"Super yummy! It's totally my taste, I'm so happy I got invited, thanks again. And, of course, I like your parents, they're so wonderful." 

Xuxi beamed in pride and Xiaojun linked their arms, pulling himself flush against his side. 

"So. The night's still young." Xuxi glanced down at him.

"You sound like you're 80," Xiaojun deadpanned, "do you still want to go work out? We did technically skip the gym and were gluttons instead."

Xuxi hummed and Xiaojun felt his hand against his hip, trying as much touch as they could get away with on the open street.

"Today's cardio, isn't it? You know what gives you a great workout? Up to 200 calories per half an hour? Without having to leave the bed?" He smirked and Xiaojun felt his face heat up a bit.

"I can't even imagine what that would be?" 

Xuxi dug his fingers into his sides and Xiaojun jerked away, giggling because it tickled.

"There's a few hotels here, you know?" Xuxi carefully suggested.

"Isn't your room decorated romantically now? I'm broke, my dad only agreed to send me 200 Yuan, that stinger,” Xiaojun pouted. He really couldn’t care less about the setting and if he made Xuxi see how wonderful his room was, they could really save some expenses here.

"I mean… it totally is if you think it is? Okay, sorry, you probably think a bare garage is romantic." Xuxi rolled his eyes.

"I'm a basic man, you give me a bed and I'm good."

Xuxi groaned as if it caused him physical pain but Xiaojun couldn’t really help him with that.

“By the way, we need to buy condoms.”

“Thanks, that really was the nail on the coffin of my hope of ever changing you in your ways of simple manhood.”

Xiaojun pouted, “Why though? Didn’t your dad also end up with your mum?”

Immediately, the exasperation melted off Xuxi’s face.

“Y-yeah, I-I guess,” Cosmopolitan pink rose on his neck. Cute!

Really, Xiaojun kind of wished he could be more than just a friend to Xuxi.

Obviously, that’d be hard while he was straight, but still. He kind of wouldn’t be opposed to introducing him to his parents and maybe have him come over during the holidays, maybe travel somewhere together… adopt more tarantulas, maybe a bunny for Xuxi, grow old…

Holy shit!

Where had that come from?

“We should so get crisps in case you don’t immediately fall asleep after coming,” Xuxi announced and ripped Xiaojun from his very confusing thoughts.

“Hm, yeah, sounds unlikely. Can we get unflavoured condoms, please?”

“Don’t you like banana on my banana?”

“And you actually call yourself a romantic?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	10. Chapter 10

Guanheng had a broad smirk on when Xiaojun rolled into their room, at 11 am.

Xuxi had long left to meet his parents, after forcefully removing every limb that Xiaojun had used to try and hold on, but he had stayed in bed and snuggled into the blankets that smelt of him until he finally decided his homework was pressing enough to rise from them.

“And? I take it, it went well if you shagged after?”

“What went well?” Xiaojun thought back to blinking up at Xuxi while swallowing around his cock and watching him squirm because it felt so good, or feeling Xuxi prod that spot inside him, sucking marks on the inside of his thighs. Oh yes, it had gone well.

“Not what you’re currently thinking about, but I’m glad that’s also working for you and you’re welcome to share details. I’m talking about the parents, come on, don’t leave me hanging, I’ve gone through literally every man signed up on Grindr and it’s looking dry as the desert Gobi, it’s a tragedy! Let me at least live through your miracle romance.”

Xiaojun picked his laptop and ‘Introduction to Microbiology’ textbook up and flopped onto his bed, “What is a Miracle Romance even supposed to be? Anyway, uh… they’re nice.”

“Wow, I’m shaking, please, not this much information, I really don’t know what to do with it. Miracle Romance is a reference to Sailor Moon, but I’m just using it because it sounds cute. And, I mean, it’s a little unlikely a guy who walks into uni straight falls in love with a gay guy on basically his first night, so it fits next to just sounding cute.”

The Word document was taking forever to open, so Xiaojun was scared to find out how long the worksheet he had to do until 11:59 pm would be, however, “I’m not in love with Xuxi.”

“Okay, sorry, I just said it like that. You can rephrase it however you feel comfortable, but, like, crush? Still, it’s cute. If you’re not going to feed your poor roommate either juicy details of what you did last night or cute ones of the dinner you had, I’ll be excusing myself because I kinda have to turn this in in… fuck, 34 minutes.”

Without offering any further explanation of how Xiaojun would be in love or just crushing on Xuxi when he was clearly straight, he disappeared behind his sleek MacBook, leaving Xiaojun to stare at the boy group poster on his wall.

What the?

He wasn’t… in… love… with Xuxi….

Quickly, Xiaojun opened his browser and started to hastily google the indicators of being in love.

Thinking about the other all the time… hm.

Wanting to be with them… hmm.

Feeling heart-racing and excitement just thinking of them… hmmm.

Maybe, he should also google if straight guys often enjoyed having sex with other guys?

Nah, it’d be fine, Kun also was with Ten when Ten was Ten, not just with Eleven.

Kun was straight, right?

So, by extention, Xiaojun was straight…

Yeah, totally.

He had a huge Microbiology-homework to tackle, he didn’t have time for an identity crisis right now - not like he needed to have one. It all made so much sense if he just focussed on how much sense it made.

To make matters worse, the cafeteria was crowded for a Sunday and Xiaojun was confused as to why and also displeased that it was so loud and warm. His brain was already smoking because of the almost impossibly questions and he still had 82% to go, however, his stomach had demanded a break – and his head would probably benefit from this as well.

Even ramen was too much of a luxury right now, so, the cafeteria it was – where his food was paid by his uncaring and cruel father who had not accepted his totally good explanation where his money had gone.

At least, he spotted Meiqi on a table, her hair still as beautiful as it had been freshly dyed.

“Hey.” he slid his tray on the other side and sat down. Would Guanheng find them? Yeah, probably.

Meiqi grunted something between a mouth full of noodles. Iconic.

Xiaojun decided to mirror her and when Guanheng sat down, he glared at them as if he was sitting down with barbarians.

“You realise you can eat a reasonable portion at a time and then eat more after you’ve finished what you had in your mouth?” He asked and demonstrated what he was talking about.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m in a hurry, I saw Ten and Kun and I cannot deal with them and their way too public sex-life.”

Xiaojun choked, “their what?”

“Not all of us are such prudes, _Xiaoxiao_,” he mirrored how Xuxi called him, Southern accent and all, and Xiaojun threw him a tiny glare but Guanheng just kept taking these ridiculously tiny portions of food, unbothered whether or not Xiaojun’s view of Kun would get permanently damaged by hearing about what he did where with his significant other.

He just wanted his golfer-dad, very motivated tutor, and cute boyfriend to Ten, goddamn, he didn’t want to know they had sex just as much as he didn’t want to know his mum and stepdad did.

Meiqi cackled, “I’m so sorry he’s your RA, oh my god, I’d move to live on the street. At least you don’t live next door, imagine that!”

Xiaojun shuddered.

“I met him in the staircase once, when I went to Xuxi’s. We made small-talk. I suddenly have an inkling why his shower broke, oh god,” he had not needed this piece of information.

“Did you really have to share this?” Meiqi held her ears closed, but it was too late.

“Really? Oh my god, I have to ask Ten abou…”

“Hey guys, you talking about me?” Ten chirped and interrupted their horror stories.

Xiaojun couldn’t even look at Kun - it was exactly what he had feared would happen. A deep conflict of admiration for a reasonable and impressive senior versus knowing he might be an A+ student on the street but god knew what in the sheets.

Did Kun top? Did he bottom? Why was Xiaojun asking himself this?

“Ten and I were just saying we’d go to the culture festival Chengxiao invited us all to. Are you going to go as well?” Kun asked and sat down with a hiss.

Yep, Xiaojun was going to have nightmares about this.

“Now I’m not going to anymore,” Meiqi drily commented and finished her soup in one shot. It was truly impressive.

“I didn’t read past the fun education part because I’m already in uni five days of the week, I don’t need to get more of an education,” Guanheng had apparently ditched his plan on being a sophisticated righteous person and was speaking with a full mouth.

“Uh, Xuxi and I are going to be representing the science department anyway.”

“You’re so boring. Imagine if they had invited some hot singer or something. They have this huge concert in the evening - you won’t get to attend one for cheaper, it’s included in the tickets, you just have to be lucky in the lottery to get a spot,” Ten boasted. Kun tried to say something about life-long learning and expanding horizons, while Guanheng asked which hot singers they could expect to show up.

Xiaojun found his thoughts drifting. At first, he had assumed Kun bottomed because of how he had sat down and expressed pain. Or maybe, Ten owned some sex toys (as Sicheng had implied he did) and there was another reason for a sore behind.

Could he stop thinking about this? Heaven, he didn’t want these pictures in his head!

“Well, I don’t know, but last year, Song Qian came and the year before, it was Ella. Urgh, she’s the best, she’s so funny, too.” Ten sighed.

Wait.

Girls?

Didn’t Ten like guys?

Xiaojun glanced at Kun. God, there was a hickey right under his jaw. Why was he doing this to himself?

Well, Ten also was non-binary, so, surely, things were different for him anyway, right? Right!

“Hm. Boring," Guanheng frowned.

“Actually, I’m intrigued,” Meiqi leaned forward with a grin.

“Okay, for the gay, last year there was this group called EXO…"

“Wait, really? Holy shit, that’s a pretty huge deal!” Guanheng looked like he was interested now, too, and Xiaojun faintly remembered Chengxiao worrying over people only being interested in the concert.

Yeah. Seemed like they wouldn’t even have to try to compete against this. Not even demonstrating nuclear fusion would win against pop stars.

Kun seemed to have come to the conclusion as well and was now joining in on discussing whether Fan Bingbing or Yang Mi were more iconic, which had nothing to do with the original topic but left Xiaojun to decide that he wouldn’t have to understand anyone’s sexuality – neither today nor tomorrow.

The discussion took so much time from his original short break, that he ran back to his dorm to save some.

When he finally hit submit, it was past eleven. The scandalous 30-minute lunch-break and another 15 to inhale more food at the cafeteria and air his brain out, had taken a toll on his progress of the near-endless worksheet.

But he had done it and had handed it in on time.

On Monday, Xiaojun found himself hidden away in the dark corridor between the labs that looked like it would be the first place to spawn Zombies during a possible future apocalypse.

He wasn’t here to create undead brain-eaters, but in the progress of rendering his own brain useless because Xuxi had his leg trapped between his own as they kept moving against each other. Xiaojun’s hands were tangled in Xuxi's hair to keep his head down so he could keep sucking on his tongue and quiet his moans while his orgasm got closer and closer.

Needless to say, that had been the most terrible idea anyone had ever had (mayo stains, totally mayo stains) and now he was also hungry during his tutorial because the only hunger that had been stilled had been the one that wouldn’t make his stomach rumble during class.

It hadn’t even been planned (as if anyone would plan such dumbass decisions). Xuxi had just been so happy over the soap and Xiaojun’s brain had gone into emergency-mode when he had started to kiss his cheeks and then one thing had led to another…

Anyway.

On Tuesday, Xuxi suggested doing the idiotic couple-pull-up and because Xiaojun was just as dumb as him, they, of course, ended up smashing their faces together but it had been funny nevertheless.

“If you shower here, it’d be faster, don’t you think?” Xuxi asked while Xiaojun packed away his last weight. The last months had seen a vast improvement in how much he could bench – and how much he could put away at a time. The only time cleaning up was cool, was during gym.

“I’m sorry, you suggest I use that nasty shower?” Xiaojun shuddered just thinking about it.

“It’s not even nearly as bad as you make it out to be, it’s just a shower – it’s even so much bigger than your bathroom – imagine having so much space to move around. I’d wash your hair!”

Great, so Xiaojun could get a hard-on in a public shower, terrific idea, that was not going to happen.

However, Xuxi was right, Xiaojun having to go back to his dorm, un-dress, shower, re-dress, and then back to Xuxi’s dorm took an extra 10 to 20 minutes easily.

Time well spent doing other things.

“Can I borrow your stuff? I don’t even have a towel.” Xiaojun muttered like this was a reasonable decision and not one his dick had made for him. He still had some clothes lying around at Xuxi’s, which he had kindly laundered for him, Xiaojun just had never picked them up. His own toothbrush was even starting to show use, so that was well taken care of, too.

“So you smell like me? Abso-fucking-lutely,” Xuxi beamed and rubbed the bench down so they could leave to stretch before facing the health risk that was the community shower of the gym.

Turned out Xiaojun may or may not have slightly exaggerated how bad it was.

He never really overexaggerated or -reacted normally, so, it was his mistake.

It had just seemed very hazardous prior to actually stepping foot inside.

Thank god he and Xuxi were having sex on a regular basis, so he even had the boner-situation in control to the point of letting Xuxi condition his hair.

“What does it need conditioning for?”

“To make it softer, of course. And healthier and shiny!”

“I thought your hair was naturally like that?” Xiaojun felt like he was unlocking a new level on Mario with this insight. He wanted soft hair, too! He had always thought this stuff was for girls only, man, he could have used conditioner all his life – where had he concluded that wrongly?

“Well, I mean, obviously I was blessed with amazing hair to go with this face, but one has to put in a bit of an effort to bring out the full potential,” Xuxi pretended to throw long hair bac kand Xiaojun chuckled before getting conditioner into his eyes.

He just barely made it out without going blind.

Ten minutes later, Xiaojun was waiting patiently on the bed while Xuxi re-installed the dropped fairy lights with more clear tape (nails in the walls were, obviously, strictly forbidden).

Once finished, he dropped when to where Xiaojun had been lazing, sighing. Xiaojun rolled over so he was sort of lying on his arm and Xuxi brought it up to pull him closer until they could kiss and Xiaojun was sure this would never become boring.

Xuxi seemed a little indecisive today and Xiaojun used the chance to take the upper hand, thoroughly exploring how to make him feel good and where he was sensitive until Xuxi’s hands on his waist hurt from how tight his grip had become.

“I feel like you want to ask something,” he softly pointed out, pulling away from the kiss to let Xuxi speak what was on his mind.

His eyes gleamed in the soft light and Xiaojun traced a finger over his jaw while waiting.

“Uh… yeah… so…” Xuxi blushed a bit, “I just, uh, since you seem to really like what we did, I wanted to maybe try and get you to cum just from that? And also I’d really like to eat you out if you’re into that? It’s totally fine if not!”

Xiaojun hesitated a moment.

Sucking dick, that was one thing, but back there?

Well, then again, it was Xuxi suggesting this, right?

Prostate orgasms totally were possible. He wasn’t sure if he could do it but it might be extremely good, so, why not at least try?

Really, it was so easy to agree to any of this when he knew Xuxi and he had so far made everything work and feel good in the end. Just thinking about how much made his dick grow harder where it was bare in his jogging pants because he hadn’t had a change of clothes and had only put this back on because it wasn’t completely gross and sweaty (Yes, he had walked across the dorm square shirtless. Yes, there had been two people looking at him like he had lost it. And one person like they had possibly developed a crush. That had been awesome).

If a mouth on his dick felt amazing, surely, it’d feel amazing on his ass, too.

“Sounds like a good time,” Xiaojun purred and leaned down to kiss Xuxi some more, only to realise his time to dominate the kiss was over and Xuxi back to being in charge.

Well, this was nice, too.

“Urgh, wait, Xuxi, I didn’t bring my lube to the gym, I didn’t think I’d need it,” Xiaojun suddenly remembered, deep regret spreading in his chest.

“Oh, mine’s maybe not as good but I’ll make sure to use enough, promise?”

Wait, Xuxi had lube?

Wait, was Xiaojun an idiot?

Of course, he had lube. Hello?

“Okay,” Xiaojun was very relieved he wouldn’t have to go get it. He was way too horny to get anything from anywhere, he’d sooner settle on a handjob (which, by the way, were still really nice).

Xuxi kissed him before pushing on his shoulder. Xiaojun got the message and sat up before getting off him.

“Lemme get this ready,” Xuxi muttered while scooting over to his nightstand. The condoms were still on top where no one had put them away from. He climbed off the bed and grabbed scissors. Right. Protection, Xiaojun knew how this worked.

In theory.

“Uh, Xuxi, where do I go?” Xiaojun asked. He didn’t feel as nervous as he had the first time. He also no longer felt self-conscious around Xuxi anymore, at least not enough to worry about his pants, so, he took them off while Xuxi did his small impromptu handicrafts session.

Xuxi looked up and didn’t miss the chance to drag his eyes over Xiaojun’s entire body, licking his lips. Xiaojun arched his back just because he could and Xuxi cut where he wasn’t supposed to because he wasn’t watching.

“Fuck, damn it! Just, wherever? I’ve never done this before, I don’t know how it’ll be easiest, to be honest. I mean, sitting on my face would probably work but then fingering would be hard. Maybe you could get on your hands and knees?” Xuxi suggested and from how he blushed deeper, Xiaojun assumed he had wanted to suggest this for longer.

He swallowed.

Well, might as well, right? It wasn’t even that bright in here, he had some comfort of darkness masking a thing or another…

Xiaojun decided to go for lying on his stomach first but he immediately realised that was a terrible idea because his dick was hard in anticipation of what was to come and the sheets felt like made from sandpaper against it.

He propped himself up a bit and glanced over his shoulder. Xuxi was cutting a new condom and seemed to be on the finishing line.

He looked up and their eyes met and Xiaojun wasn’t sure why Xuxi had this effect, but his worry disappeared and he pushed his ass out a bit just to tease.

“Fuck,” Xuxi whispered and nearly dropped the new one – in which case Xiaojun would have taken over or they might still be here tomorrow and not because anyone had gotten edged for hours (which was probably still quite frustrating but not this type).

A moment later, the bed dipped and Xuxi pushed a big hand over Xiaojun’s thigh, up to his ass, where he massaged the muscle, eyes watching what he was doing so intensely that Xiaojun had to turn away and look at the sheets because he couldn’t handle it.

It was still amazing to see that, apparently, Xuxi found him as sexy as he found Xuxi. It helped him give that push of confidence he needed to get up on his knees, steadying his upper body on his hands. It was a very odd position to be in because he mainly saw the bed but the bed was far away, not giving him any sort of chance to hide.

He didn’t have to hide from Xuxi, he reminded himself and let his legs push apart a little more so it was more comfortable.

“Okay, uh, I’ll put lube underneath so I can finger you later but this is water-based so if you feel like it’s used up and not enough anymore, tell me,” his voice rasped how it always did when he was turned on and Xiaojun hummed. He was nervous, but so was Xuxi, clearly. It made the whole ordeal a lot less nerve-wracking and he even stopped fussing over how he was currently presenting himself.

For Xuxi, he _wanted_ to put himself on display.

He smelt strawberry because, of course, he had flavoured lube. Who was still surprised at this point? This was Xuxi!

At least it smelt absolutely chemical and not like the real deal – unlike the banana condoms. Xiaojun just knew he would never be able to look at equally chemical-smelling strawberry sweets the same way again.

Xuxi’s fingers rubbing over his ass to spread lube didn’t even feel foreign anymore, Xiaojun felt his muscles relax as a reaction, immediately wanting him to push inside as soon as possible.

He pulled himself together. There was more in store today, a bit of patience!

The lube actually helped made the DIY-dam stick to his ass and it didn’t feel as weird as Xiaojun would have expected it to. Xuxi held the edges while pulling his cheeks apart and Xiaojun’s heart was beating loudly because even if it was Xuxi, it was new and he was basically submitting all power to him like this.

“Okay?” Xuxi whispered and Xiaojun let his rough voice wrap around him like a cocoon.

“Y-yeah, I think? I’ll tell you if it’s not.” He confirmed.

“I insist on it.”

Really, would it get any better? Probably not. Xiaojun sighed when he felt Xuxi run a finger over the cleft of his ass, teasing what was to come before he felt his mouth through the thin barrier, almost as hot and wet as it would have been directly on him because of the lube.

Xuxi licked up from his balls over his rim and Xiaojun’s breathing got heavier and his skin prickled. It was different than fingers, very different. He circled the ring of muscle that was soft and relaxed from practice and Xiaojun let his head drop between his arms because it was way too hard to hold it up the entire time.

“G-good! Oh god, Xuxi, I feel like a slut asking for something inside, please,” he whispered, but the words were out before he could think. Nothing new, not anymore, who even needed a brain anyway?

Xuxi hummed and the sound sent vibrations through Xiaojun that made him moan under his breath. However, it was immediately followed up by Xuxi pushing his tongue past the muscle, into him, and now Xiaojun really moaned because of how the lube helped to make it slide, opening him so effortlessly. Xuxi’s mouth was so much warmer than just fingers. His tongue didn’t reach far, but it was thick and he could move it differently, teasing his rim and the most sensitive part that Xiaojun liked friction on.

Holding himself up on his hands seemed like a terribly exhausting task and Xiaojun dropped down onto his elbows while trying not to forget breathing – which was sort of hard, “Oh, Xuxi, fuck, fuck, this is so good.”

Xiaojun wasn’t just flattering him. His hole was stretched open wider and wider the deeper he pushed his tongue into him, then closed when he pulled back out, only to be opened in the same manner again. The gradient stretch mixing with how hot and wet it felt wasn’t something fingers could ever achieve and Xiaojun was very glad Xuxi had suggested this.

Or he would have been if he still had been able to think about anything other than how hot this was and how much he needed Xuxi to never stop.

Luckily, he didn’t plan to quite yet. Xuxi picked the pace up and fucked his tongue into him, the stimulation growing even more intense and good from how fast his rhythm was. It was broken by irregular moments of circling his rim with made Xiaojun whimper because he was left hanging and couldn’t quite anticipate what would happen next – yet he also liked how Xuxi licked around it and sent small sparks through his body.

He felt when Xuxi started pushing his right hand under the dam and a finger teased his hole next to where he was pushing his tongue into him. Xiaojun arched his back more, hoping to make Xuxi hurry up because getting something deeper into himself sounded absolutely amazing right now. He wanted it!

“More, Xuxi, come on,” his voice was pitched up a bit and sounded rather desperate but he didn’t care – and neither did Xuxi. He didn’t hesitate to push his ring finger into him with the next thrust, not bothering to be overly cautious, going all the way with one move and Xiaojun heard himself cry out a little because Xuxi knew exactly where to go by now and he didn’t bother wasting time anywhere else.

His dick twitched helplessly between his legs as Xuxi massaged against his prostate while continuously tongue-fucking him. If he’d reach down and started touching it, he’d come in a few moments, he knew.

He wanted to… he felt so good, he wanted to come.

However, Xuxi pulled away and also peeled the condom off and his orgasm was suddenly out of reach without the thick muscle playing with his rim.

He felt more lube on his ass, cold for a moment before it warmed up and Xuxi pushed another finger into him, making it squelch filthily.

“Good?”

“Ye-ah, urgh,” Xiaojun pushed his legs apart a little to stretch himself open better.

Xuxi placed his thumb against his perineum, keeping it there to massage the sensitive skin while he started to thrust the two fingers, shallow and slow moves quickly growing bigger and faster because Xiaojun didn’t need as much time to get used to it anymore.

It was perfect. Xuxi adjusted based on how he reacted, the same thing both of them usually did, only, potentially, even better because Xiaojun wasn’t sure how Xuxi felt when he sucked him off. The thought of his cock was actually quite a good one, Xiaojun allowed it to linger while he moaned in time with Xuxi’s thrusts.

Every move helped him get a bit closer, yet it was frustratingly slow without any stimulation on his dick. Xiaojun tried to sink down a bit more, to get friction from the bed, but Xuxi wouldn’t let him, keeping him up and open for his fingers.

Xiaojun buried his hands in his own hair, gasping against the sheets so close to his face from how he was barely able to hold himself up. Despite his moans and whines growing more pleading the more worked up Xiaojun got, Xuxi just kept fingering him, sometimes changing how he rubbed over his sweet spot, sometimes changing the rhythm so he never got quite used to it.

It was amazing and Xiaojun was so close, he could taste his orgasm, but it wouldn’t come.

“I-I can’t!” it was just a sob, truly desperate, but he wanted to finally come so badly and he was sure he long would have if he could just touch his dick. He knew it was dripping pre-cum and it almost hurt where it hung heavy, but it just wasn’t enough.

“Let me add another? I’m sure you can, maybe this just isn’t what you need?” Xuxi whispered and Xiaojun was so on edge and close, yet too far, he just groaned and nodded.

He felt more cold lube and whined because it only pushed his orgasm further away, interrupting his routine, but he knew he needed it when Xuxi tried a third finger and it went in with a little resistance.

A little resistance, that was just enough to intensify the friction to the point of almost being painful. Almost. It was still just in the levels of good – maddeningly good.

“More, fast, Xuxi, oh god,” Xiaojun wasn’t sure why but he loved how it strained on his muscles, pushing him to the limits of what he could take, but it gave him so much pleasure in return, he didn’t question just gasped for more. His forehead was touching the mattress now because he had no strength left in his body and when Xuxi did pick up his pace, the wet sound became loud and filthy, mixing with Xiaojun’s broken moans, and the pressure on his prostate too much to take. It was finally enough.

He felt his muscles tighten, one more thrust, two, three, and then he finally clenched down, the scream muffled against the sheets, his dick starting to spill while his thighs shook and gave out from underneath him while Xuxi mercilessly kept pushing into his prostate, making it last longer and longer until he was spent and boneless, just gasping for air.

Xuxi pulled out of him and Xiaojun felt his ass was loose, probably gaping open. He would have been embarrassed but Xuxi sucked in his breath as if this was the sexiest thing he had ever witnessed and after a couple of seconds of twitching in the aftershocks of his orgasm, it felt normal again. As Xiaojun slowly got back to it, Xuxi moved him away from the watch patch.

Xiaojun just let him, still catching his breath. His hair was sticky and smelt of the conditioner but he probably had to shower again after this. Xuxi rolled him to his back and crawled over him, pushing his hair from his forehead and kissing him.

“That was so amazing, so hot,” he huskily announced and Xiaojun smiled tiredly.

“Thanks, you did all the work.”

“Still, your ass has talent, I’m sure of it.”

Xiaojun wasn’t sure what to say to this – maybe get it printed and hang it up? Guanheng might be jealous, possibly even Ten.

He just giggled and pulled Xuxi down to kiss.

“I’m sorry you’re still hard. Can you wait an hour or so?” Xiaojun wasn’t sure an hour would cut it but he would try and power-nap. God, he was so exhausted and also happy and lazy and just wanted to snuggle up to Xuxi and sleep.

“Not really, but I was thinking, well, I could try and fuck your thighs? Might be too much but that way you just have to hold still and be pretty.”

“I feel so bad, you do all the work here,” Xiaojun pouted, but Xuxi kissed it right off his face.

“I love making you look this wrecked and feel good, this is the best reward for me, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I can just jack off if you’re too sensitive?”

“Mm, nah, think it’s fine,” Xiaojun muttered and let Xuxi push his hand between his legs. It was a bit much but not too much to feel him brush against his ass and balls. His dick hadn’t even been touched, so, it didn’t feel as tender as it usually did after just coming.

Normally, he absolutely wouldn’t be doing any of this, but he was still high on his orgasm and Xuxi was hard and neglected. If this was an easy way out, Xiaojun could bite back a bit of discomfort for his sake.

Nevermind it, even to his tired brain, sounded absolutely exciting.

Xiaojun gave him a terribly warm-up handjob while Xuxi spread generous amounts of lube between his thighs that made any consideration whether or not a shower could be avoided superfluous – it could not be especially not with this strawberry scent.

Without a hard-on, Xiaojun could roll onto his stomach comfortably (the sheets were really taking a toll today) and crossed his ankles to lock his legs together.

He glanced over his shoulder – the lack of a view really being the major downside to this – and saw Xuxi roll on the condom. At least one of them seemed to always remember it was needed.

“Your ass looks great,” Xuxi whispered while positioning himself over Xiaojun, who just lazily rested his head on the pillow, hoping to get to watch because this shouldn’t be too difficult.

“Never as good as yours,” Xiaojun mumbled. Xuxi seemed to like touching his ass as much as Xiaojun liked touching his nipples, because he had a hand on it again, squeezing it. Honestly, there were tougher fates to live. He was literally just lying here, doing nothing but slowly getting closer to sleep…

Until Xuxi actually pushed his dick between his thighs (which had sort of been the point) and Xiaojun was suddenly anything but asleep, feeling the hardness press against his ass, his rim, his balls, all the sensitive places that were just that much more sensitive only a little after coming.

“Fuck, Xiaoxiao, this feels, urgh, so good.”

“G-good,” Xiaojun managed to breathe back while tightening his hold on his pillow. He could feel himself grow warm again and even though he knew he wouldn’t get it up so quickly, his body sure as hell was doing its all to try because, damn, this felt good.

Xuxi leaned down and sucked a mark onto the back of his neck and then said something about him telling if it got too much, which was all the warning Xiaojun got before he started to actually move.

He nearly just unfolded his legs when Xuxi thrust between them, rubbing over the exact same places again just with more force and giving him much more friction. It was definitely straining it but it was similar to earlier, on the edge of too much, making it so good he could only gasp and hold on to avoid moving over the sheets too much from Xuxi pushing against him from behind, the sheer display of strength already enough to make him light-headed.

Xuxi’s deep moans and the sound of skin slapping on skin made him burn even hotter because nothing compared to the knowledge he was making Xuxi feel good using his body. Xiaojun heard his own gasps and groans mix in and he could only compare this to the sex scenes in movies. It wasn’t quite that but it was close and god, Xuxi knew how to move!

With him continuously pressing down on his rim, the thought of how it’d be if he’d use these powerful thrusts to not fuck his thighs but his ass was easy to come. Xiaojun whimpered and held on harder. Just the thought of being opened on his cock was suddenly inviting, amazing, and absolutely what he wanted – in the future. This was already a lot, just a bit more and it’d hurt.

“Xiaoxiao, I’m close, okay?” Xuxi gasped from behind and Xiaojun wasn’t hard but his gut felt tight like he was close as well so he could just gasp a small yes back.

When Xuxi stuttered in his fast rhythm and buried himself between Xiaojun’s thighs with one last thrust, his cock pushed over his balls and against his dick just enough to bring him where he hadn't thought he could be again this quickly. Xiaojun’s body locked up, heat ran over his skin, and he was coming just as much as Xuxi was, just without actual cum. He could feel himself tremble and gasp, his vision going completely black for a few seconds of just raw pleasure.

When he came back to it, Xuxi had already pulled away and was turning him around again.

Xiaojun was still shaking and slightly delirious, completely high on orgasming not just once but twice in a row.

“Did you… did you just come again?” Xuxi sounded unsure of what to do and, honestly, who could blame him?

“Y-ye-ah,” Xiaojun’s voice was as shaky as his body and he started to slowly feel how sticky he was all over from lube.

“Fuck,” Xuxi whispered and carefully laid down next to Xiaojun as if scared to overwhelm him – like he couldn’t get any more perfect. Xiaojun rolled right into his arms to kiss him because he needed to have this show of appreciation right now.

“I-I didn’t even kn-know I could do that, so m-many new skills today,” Xiaojun whispered, slowly coming back to it.

“Of course, my little Xiaoxiao is so talented,” Xuxi cooed and Xiaojun guessed this was probably not very straight but he was so tired he didn’t care.

He also didn’t care that it was a community shower in which he and Xuxi took forever to get clean because Xiaojun’s legs weren’t fond of supporting him anymore and he had to hold himself up somewhere while Xuxi washed his hair and body from sweat and lube.

The water-based type really had a lot of advantages when it came to this.

The next morning, Xiaojun was the first to rise from his alarm when it had usually been Xuxi turning it off and kissing him good morning.

Xiaojun fumbled with his phone, knocked over the box of condoms in the process, and realised that his body was basically screaming in agony waist down.

His legs, in particular, had really taken a hit yesterday.

“Five more,” Xuxi grumbled and nuzzled against his chest, which was ticklish, so Xiaojun tried to squirm away, which only helped further confirm that he was sore as hell.

He nearly came late to his lecture because he had taken the lift in the dorm and then struggled up the small hill to the science building that never before had posed a problem.

Not to speak of how his thoughts were now permanent residents of the gutter because this was basically a constant reminder of all things dirty.

The main question at hand, that he kept going back to, was that of how Xuxi’s dick would feel in his ass and if he could expect to be able to move the following day or not.

He should research this some more.

Xuxi was in the hallway when they were let out for lunch and Xiaojun felt himself smile immediately when he walked over to nudge his elbow into Xuxi’s waist in lieu of kissing him, which, obviously, wouldn’t fly here.

“Did you see the menu? There’ll have beef today,” Xuxi announced and Xiaojun shamelessly used him to take the strain off his poor legs. Xuxi had brought him into this position, he could handle the consequences.

“Are you sure they won’t be out in 10 minutes flat, though?”

“Well, no, which is why we’re hurrying.”

“I see,” Xiaojun was very fond of beef, so fond, that he could handle a little bit of soreness if it ensured he’d get a nice piece.

They were lucky. Xiaojun was internally counting the macros and it was basically fitness porn. He would heave a small thank-you message for the kitchen staff in their requests box.

“Guys, over here,” someone called when they made their way between the tables. He spotted Yangyang and Xuanyi together with a girl he had never seen before.

Yangyang sat as tall as he could, having this unmistakable aura of trying hard, which was sort of cute and let Xiaojun conclude who this was. The date he had taken to his favourite café!

“Hi, there,” Xuxi flopped down in a free chair and Xiaojun took his right, a bit more careful to spare his poor backside.

Xuanyi was buzzing in excitement, her eyes round and sparkling, looking like she was the one dating this girl, and not Yangyang, because she was so excited for him. Xiaojun loved how supportive everyone was, he wanted to be as well.

“So,” Yangyang cleared his throat to make sure his voice wouldn’t crack and keep the air of coolness and swag around him that might be sabotaged by his voice failing him. Xiaojun still remembered those days all too well, when he had just sounded like a frog at best, a donkey at worst, “these are Xuxi and Xiaojun, and this is Yuqi. She majors in social studies.”

Xiaojun wanted to coo at Yangyang looking so proud of his date and how pretty she was with her light brown bangs curled and a bit of sparkle on her eyes to fit the lacey outfit.

“Hi, it’s so nice to meet you!” she beamed and reached her hand over the table. Xuxi’s paw seemed ridiculously oversized when he shook it, “I was curious to meet Yangyang’s friends because a friend group will tell you so much about a person, so I pressed to be introduced quickly,” she explained, keeping her sweet smile and her hands wandered over to loosely place over Yangyang’s.

Eleven and Kun were put out of business as cutest couple here.

Yangyang looked at them with pleading eyes. He might want to save them for Guanheng’s arrival. Xiaojun wasn’t going to re-tell that Yangyang liked the Spice Girls and had given himself his first short haircut when he had been ready to transition, which had looked like he had had an accident with a mincer.

“Of course, of course, we love to meet you, too, after all, the person you go out with will be the one you end up spending so much time with,” Xuanyi chirped, looking like she had already adopted Yuqi.

“Did you go to Wings Café?” Xuxi asked while starting to dig in.

Xiaojun pre-cut his beef to mix it in with his vegetables while Xuxi ate those first to keep the meat for later. Xuxi did that to have the best last, and while he envied he had his meat un-tainted by greens, Xiaojun just didn’t have that sort of patience and self-control.

“Yes, do you know it? It’s so cute, I was so impressed Yangyang knew such a nice place. Did you know they change themes every Monday? It was unicorn week last and now it’s roses this.”

Roses? Xiaojun perked up.

“Yeah, well, actually, he recommended it, kinda,” Yangyang admitted sheepishly.

Xiaojun was still quite close to insolvency but it would be enough to buy Xuxi and himself a coffee, so they could enjoy the theme. Maybe on Sunday, after the festival on Saturday. He might have to do his homework in the night or summon a demon to do it for him, but surely Xuxi would be cute and enjoy the theme. Xiaojun wanted to see that.

“Really? Wow, I wouldn’t have expected that from a guy. It’s really good taste!” Yuqi looked impressed and, well, what could Xiaojun say, Xuxi just was amazing.

“I’m gay, we have better taste anyway,” Xuxi shrugged and Xiaojun found himself nodding.

Yuqi’s eyebrows rose and then her eyes wandered to Xiaojun right next to Xuxi, currently passing him the fatty parts of his meat because he didn’t like those but Xuxi didn't care.

“Oh, of course, I should have realised that. I mean, you just expect some stereotypes, my bad. Still, great taste, did you go there together, too?”

“Yeah, it’s the best place,” Xuxi confirmed. Xiaojun was about to ask if they found the sofas there as comfortable, too, because he totally had social skills, but they were interrupted by Guanheng and Meiqi joining the table.

The whole introduction started again., including Yangyang looking big and swag – or trying to. Xiaojun guessed dating had to be hard when you just got to know the person. He really didn’t feel like doing any of that. On the other hand, he had planned to get a girlfriend and he was already well into his first semester, he should better hurry up or it wouldn’t happen.

Not for the first time, the thought of whether or not he just wanted to date Xuxi crept into his mind.

They had already long overcome this stage of awkwardness, the nerves when having sex, everything, yet Xiaojun was still always excited to see him – wait, that wasn’t very straight, was it?

It was kind of generally accepted that guys dating other guys wasn’t straight.

But what if he still wanted to…?

Eleven arriving in a flurry of long hair and a huge pink sweater interrupted his musings of whether or not dating guys was something he wanted to do.

“Oh, I see a lost flower in this pit of darkness,” she leaned past Xuanyi, who just moved back to let her, “Nice to meet you, nice to meet you, I’m Eleven and I’m Yangyang’s in-official mentor. He’s like my son, I’m sure you understand I was most curious to meet you.”

Yuqi’s eyes widened and she shook her hand like she was making a deal with Satan themselves. Well, Xiaojun would have probably long have run for the hills in fear, props to her for not doing so.

“I’m Yuqi, nice to meet you.”

Yangyang was eying the exchange with keen eyes but not cutting in to save Yuqi.

“Of course, I already heard a lot about you. I hope all the praise can be confirmed in real life, it’s so easy to develop a blind spot and then come to the crushing realisation the person is not nearly as lovely as expected.” Xiaojun felt a shiver down his spine. This was like Eleven and the Cosmopolitan all over.

“I… praise?” Yuqi nudged Yangyang, face flushed, “I hope to get along well with everyone. Uh, just… what are your pronouns, Eleven?” Xiaojun internally cheered for her bravery and eloquence. Eleven wasn’t really scary, he knew that now (at least most of the time she wasn’t). With about 20 piercings, her smart almond eyes, and almost dismissive way of speaking to newcomers, it was impossible to know that when first meeting her.

However, it seemed like Yuqi was holding up quite well in the bigotry-test.

“She and her today, thanks for asking. What are yours?” Eleven’s scrutinising expression and hard voice were already softening.

“Uh, oh, me? Also she,” Yuqi looked like she was only pretending to be brave and eloquent and Xiaojun felt for her but he was also the token straight here and unequipped to help.

“Open up,” Xuxi softly said and Xiaojun did to accept a piece of lean meat. Xuxi really was the best.

“So, social studies, please tell us more about that!” Xuanyi, ever-reliable, pushed Eleven and her intimidating jewellery collection from Yuqi’s face to let the girl catch a break. Yuqi smoothly went into explaining her wish to work with people later in life and Eleven looked approving.

It was sort of nice. Sicheng and Chengxiao were missing but other than them, they were almost complete. Xiaojun loved that he had found such a wonderful group of people to call his friends.

The more they descended into comfortable chattering, the more Yangyang managed to relax and just join them without making sure his voice was in place and his shoulder squared. Xiaojun hoped he could soon overcome this stage of peacocking and could just be comfortable. Yuqi seemed sweet. As Sicheng had said, often, people would surprise you.

Just how Xuxi had surprised Xiaojun, though in very different ways.

And, obviously, they weren’t dating.

They only did couple-stuff a lot.

Like.

A lot a lot.

Like the café, they had gone to so often.

And matching their schedules to hang out the maximum amount of time.

Also, the sex.

And they cuddled a lot after and kissed and he often slept over…

Plus, Xuxi picking him up from classes when he could, that wasn’t really something friends normally did.

That was kind of…

_Boyfriend-y._

Nevermind how long their WeChat history was.

Even his brother had jokingly commented under his Weibo repost he looked like a dwarf ghost next to his _boyfriend_. That had obviously been teasing but now…

Yuqi had glanced between them after Xuxi had said he was gay and she had said she should have realised.

Somehow, all of this being coincidence and just normal didn’t sound as likely in Xiaojun’s head anymore as he wanted it to!

Were they dating?

Naaaah, surely…

Fuck, even if the weren’t dating, Xiaojun _wanted_ to date Xuxi.

Help, this totally wasn’t straight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun duuuun
> 
> [cc](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s the last chapter already ;;;
> 
> Just as a quick fyi, some readers kindly informed me I had poorly worded myself in the last chapter when I said ‘Yangyang decided to transition’, which I’ve adjusted to ‘Yangyang had been ready to transition’. I would like to apologise for my insensitive choice of words and thank you for your feedback. >.<

So, it turned out having an identity crisis about your sexuality was not fun.

At all.

No wonder he had put this off so many times, but now, he no longer could because it was really pressing and obvious.

It started at 1:46 pm, the moment in the cafeteria Xiaojun had come to the conclusion he could just not be straight.

The immediate reaction had been coma-inducing heart racing in direct correlation to the distance between himself and Xuxi, a flight from the cafeteria, and a minor freak-out in front of Seminary room SB-206.

The next had been not being able to get himself to answer Xuxi’s texts, much less see him because he was panicking. Just the right amount, of course. He was absolutely not overreacting here. Xiaojun would never.

He ditched their evening together on Wednesday for sore legs (true) and lots of homework (also true) to spent it holed up and crying a little over organic chemistry and the lgbt wikia. He found the name to not be very inclusive but the content helpful to give him a sense of direction so he could cry more while diving into tumblr blogs.

So, turned out straight people did not usually find their same-gendered friends incredibly attractive and enjoyed having sex with them.

Bummer.

“Xiaojun, literally, what are you doing? You’re doing homework and cry whenever you look at the screen, I’m slightly worried,” Guanheng finally asked when Xiaojun was an hour into his mental breakdown.

“I’m fine,” Xiaojun was not fine but he didn’t know how to explain himself.

“Okay…” Guanheng returned to the chat with this hot guy he had found on his 5th dating app and Xiaojun tried to find new homes for all his electrons in the reaction before reading some more about this girl who had had a crush on her childhood best friend and never realised that was not what people usually had, thus had come to the conclusion she might not be as straight as expected.

Why was he even crying?

There was no reason to be upset by the news of being queer.

There even were multiple descriptors that all kind of fit and sounded really welcoming and had fun flags with bright colours. Xiaojun could get a button to carry around, how Guanheng did – once he felt brave enough. Which was the issue, he had always thought he’d just fit into the norm. Now, apparently, he didn’t, and that was kind of a lot to realise 20 years into life.

Every electron had been adopted in his equation and Xiaojun flipped the page to next take care of some benzene rings. Now, which one was Ortho and which Metha? Para was the last but… urgh.

He just didn’t know how he had not realised this earlier? That seemed to be the main issue right now. He felt like he had been misled into thinking he was straight when he wasn’t?

Also, it was a little overwhelming to suddenly think that instead of just being very fond of Xuxi, he was probably in _love _with him.

Obviously, Xuxi was very loveable, but _oh **god**_.

He might not even feel the same?

Did Xiaojun now have to ask him out on dates and be stiff and awkward like Yangyang to hope and impress Xuxi into liking him back?

What if he wasn’t Xuxi’s type?

He wanted to ask his mum.

Actually, that sounded like a pretty good idea. Could tell her about his most recent insights, too. She should know about this.

She was probably going to be okay with it. Right?

What if not?

“Xiaojun, like, you’re sobbing now and I do have a heart so I feel inclined to ask if you’re actually okay?”

“Y-y-yeah,” Xiaojun took one of his jack-off tissues and blew his nose. His benzene ring looked like a potato. And that was probably an insult to potatoes all around.

“Okay, like, did you have trouble with Xuxi? A mean teacher? Hard homework? Did your favourite dinosaur turn out to have been made up by fiction?” Guanheng pushed himself between his chemistry book and worksheets, “Ew, I bet it’s the homework.”

Xiaojun sniffled and shook his head. Guanheng was very proud of being the introducing homosexual, he could ask him for help, right?

“So, like, I was thinking that, uh, well, I might just not be as straight as I thought I was?”

Guanheng nodded understandingly. It felt good to be taken seriously and Xiaojun carried on.

“I mean, that’s just… what a scam. I always thought I was straight because that’s kind of expected? Maybe I had this obsession with Tschaikowsky ballets for a time because of the tight leggings?”

“Yeah, I hate society, too, uh, just, you’ve been questioning this for longer, right? I sounds like this was a very recent insight?”

“Yeah, just realised it earlier, why?”

Guanheng’s face fell and he blinked at Xiaojun, turned away to pinch himself and turned to Xiaojun again.

“I’m sorry, you’ve been going out and sleeping with Xuxi for how many months now? Never seemed, I don’t know, a little gay to you?”

“Yeah, but, no, because I still liked boobs not just dick, so – I’m not gay. I’m actually bi or pan or something, but I kinda didn’t know those were a thing, okay, well I did, I just never really thought about them twice because most people are straight or gay and I urgh, okay I’m literally the biggest idiot,” Xiaojun dropped his face into his hands to escape Guanheng’s completely stunned expression – including a slaw jaw.

“Uh… yeah, you kinda are, I have to say this or I’d be lying through my teeth. But that’s okay.” Guanheng rubbed his back and Xiaojun just cried a little more because he was already feeling dumb so why not feel dumber? “So, are you scared to tell your family or… man, Xiaojun, you have your own clothes at Xuxi’s because you fuck so much, I can’t believe it didn’t ring a bell, what kind of alternate reality were you stuck in?” Guanheng was chuckling over Xiaojun’s misery and, fair enough.

“Yeah, well, it seemed okay when Kun was straight and still dating Ten on Ten days,” Xiaojun croaked.

“Kun’s pan! Oh my god, he’s not straight!”

“But, the preaching about not falling for straight people?” Xiaojun had not made this up, he was not at fault for this!

“Well, honestly, he used to identify as straight, but he kind of realised that if you’re attracted to a man sexually, you’re not a heterosexual. Those are attracted to people of the opposite gender. Thus the name hetero.”

It made so much sense suddenly.

“Okay, but, new problem: I think I’m in love with Xuxi!” Xiaojun stared at Guanheng pleadingly.

“Good for you, I wonder how this never became an issue earlier but, hey, better late than never?”

“Yeah, but, like, what if he doesn’t see me that way?” Xiaojun nibbled on his thumb, anxious to hear Guanheng’s reply. Guanheng surely knew about stuff like this and could give him a recommendation on whether to hope for a relationship becoming reality or not.

“I…. I’m sorry, Xiaojun,” instead of advice, Guanheng was gasping for air and Xiaojun was confused as to why? “I-I can’t help you with that. Oh god, please just open your eyes and you might see what is clear as day to everyone else.”

So, did that mean Xuxi might like him, too?

It was very unclear.

Probably not, right?

Dang it.

Should he still ask him out?

What if that would make it weird?

The café even had a rose theme, it would have been a perfect first date.

Xiaojun just didn’t have these kinds of balls.

Instead of romantic date suggestions, he escaped Xuxi picking him up from class by leaving 10 minutes early and feeling terrible about it while he ate two riceballs in the quiet of his room.

He also didn’t reply to his text until hours later.

He said his legs still were sore and he couldn’t come to the gym.

His legs were sore but not even anywhere near ditching gym for. His sixpack wasn’t going to train itself especially when he ate riceballs instead of broccoli. He did 200 sit-ups between old socks and chewing gum papers on their floor.

He couldn’t face Xuxi. Not while he didn’t know how to address this newfound bisexuality and in-love-situation. He tried to cheer up over new photos from Cinderella but it wouldn’t quite work. He missed Xuxi’s low voice and excited-speaking pattern.

He tried to soothe himself by jacking off to the memory is Xuxi doing it for him, which then made him miss the other so much he cried himself to sleep.

It had been a low point.

Even though they had the festival on Saturday and had planned to prepare their experiments on Friday, Xiaojun cancelled on short notice, asking Xuxi to please do it without him and that he was sorry.

Xiaojun _was_ sorry. And lonely without Xuxi.

But he was confused and scared and just ran for an entire hour on the treadmill to try and clear his head.

Long story short: it didn’t work, he still was overthinking, still bisexual, still in love with Xuxi, and not a single step closer to figuring anything out.

Maybe, sleeping it off would do the trick. Not the bisexuality or the love, but the confusion and overall helplessness he was experiencing?

Xiaojun ignored 12 new messages, 11 of which from Xuxi, and the fact that it was only 7:30 and Guanheng in the process getting ready to go out with Eleven and Sicheng to find ‘more dick because this dating is way too tiring’.

Xiaojun also wanted dick. Xuxi’s dick.

Could he just go back to their casual thing? Friends with benefit? He missed the friend and the benefits and it had already been like dating anyway, save for couple phone-cases maybe.

Xiaojun petted his phone. Guanheng pushed three condoms and lube-packs into his pocket. Xiaojun tried to hug his phone. It was too small to hug.

“Honestly, you’re not coping well,” Guanheng announced. It was a blatant lie. Xiaojun was coping wonderfully, he had even already overcome the slightly scary coming-out process!

He had texted into the family group chat that he was bisexual and just hadn't realised before, then linked the lgbt wikia article. His stepdad had congratulated and asked if presents were normally given to such a happy occasion, his mum had said the wikia had bad quotations and didn’t seem very reliable a source and if Xiaojun could please explain it to her because it sounded complicated but she wanted to understand it right if it was about her baby, and his brother had asked why this was news and why no one even bothered to hide that he was the second favourite child.

He had not yet called his mum to explain anything nor to ask her what to do because chances were she’d say he’d have to talk to Xuxi and he wanted to avoid that at all costs.

“I’m doing well.”

“Yeah, no.” there was a knock on the door when Guanheng pulled on his black jacket. Speaking of black jackets and immediately thinking of leather, Xiaojun missed Xuxi in his and he missed hugging him and kissing him and talking about dinosaurs. He couldn’t even surf his favourite pages without feeling like crying more.

God, this was miserable.

Once more, he considered going back to friends with benefits but he really didn’t want to. He really wanted to introduce Xuxi as his boyfriend and make his bother pale in envy and then adopt 20 snakes and tarantulas and live happily ever after.

Xiaojun hickupped to himself and a tear fell onto his benzene-potato.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t coping that terribly well?

Guanheng opened the door and Xiaojun expected it to be Sicheng, maybe Eleven if she felt up to violating the house rules again, picking him up, but instead, a low and velvety voice, full of concern asked:

“Hey, is Xiaoxiao here? I wanted to check on him, he’s been weird and… I don’t know, kind of avoiding me?”

Xiaojun immediately slammed his laptop shut, dove under the blanket he had already been using as his hide-out, and tried to melt into his mattress.

He hoped Guanheng would make the only helpful decision in this situation. Send him away, saying Xiaojun had just left, caught the black plague, or been abducted by aliens. Or all of the above.

“Oh, thank god one of you has a brain. He’s in his bed and possibly crying but definitely on the brink of actually losing all his marbles. Please fix my roomie, I still need him.”

“Crying?” Xuxi gasped and a second later (their room wasn’t big, it wasn’t far between door and bed), the mattress dipped and Xiaojun internally cursed Guanheng as a traitor, who chirped a goodbye and closed the door.

“Xiaoxiao? Hey!” A bigger form wiggled under the blanket and wrapped around him, warm and huge and strong and Xiaojun hadn’t been crying (this was a lie) but now he kind of might be (he definitely was) because it was so perfect and he loved this, “What’s wrong, why are you ignoring me? What upset you? Why didn’t you tell me? I missed you so much,” Xuxi pressed small kisses to his nape and Xiaojun thought this really was very gay, how had he never noticed that before?

“I’m sorry,” he croaked and let his hand slide over Xuxi’s big arm around his waist, holding him warm and tight…

“Don’t be, tell me what’s wrong, can I help you?” Xuxi could please take him have his brain checked, thank you.

“I...” Xiaojun swallowed thickly. “I missed you, too,” he muttered, his voice small and pretty pitiful but he had, he had missed him so much even though it had only been a bit over two days.

“Was it because of, you know, the two orgasms? I was wondering if it had been too much because you were _so_ sore and if you hadn’t liked it and didn’t know how to tell me. We can dial it back, that’s fine, we should go slow. I’m sorry if I pushed too much.”

“No!” Xiaojun most definitely wasn’t upset by that, god, why was Xuxi so perfect and sweet? “It’s… not that, it’s, uh, so, this might be weird but I might have had a realisation on Wednesday after that lunch with Yuqi that, I, erm, am bisexual? Not straight?” He just laid very still in Xuxi’s arms waiting for his reaction, so he hopefully would disappear into thin air if need be.

“Oh, uh, on Wednesday? Like, two days ago?” Xuxi sounded even more surprised and confused than Guanheng had been and Xiaojun couldn’t blame him.

“Y-yeah, I’m sorry, I, just, urgh. I really didn’t see it. It feels weird to think of myself as queer?” Xiaojun whispered.

Xuxi tightened his grip.

“I guess that must be weird when you just got to the realisations. But, uh, that won’t change anything, right? You’re not going to freak out and break up with me? I will cry and beg for you to not even if Eleven would rip my head off for it,” Xuxi sounded like he was actually going to and of course Xiaojun would not…

Wait.

“Break up? Are we a couple?”

There was a moment of silence.

WAIT!

“Xiaoxiao, please tell me you’re kidding right now. We go on dates? We kiss? We sleep with each other? Dude, what more does a man have to do for you so you think you’re dating him? Please tell me you actually like me and I’ve been not living in illusion for the last months?”

Xiaojun groaned knocked his head against the wall, conveniently right in front of him, to sacrifice the last the remaining brain cell that wasn’t even working anymore anyway. No one needed it, good riddance.

“I’m sorry, I’ll just see myself out, I can’t… god, I was freaking out for two days because I realised I had fallen in love with you and wasn’t sure how to ask you out! I thought it was _like_ dates, not _dates_. Oh god. I don’t know how to come back from this, I’m so sorry, I’m so dumb,” Xiaojun groaned. Someone, please, finally hand him his medal of biggest idiot EVER.

Luckily, Xuxi started to chuckle and kissed his neck again, trailing up to his ear, “You’re so cute. But can you say that again? After two days of Xiaoxiao-withdrawal, this is better than rain after a drought.”

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Xiaojun asked, unsure which part of his mess of a sentence Xuxi was referring to. It felt very weird to say this out loud now, but he’d get used to this new identity he had found, get comfortable with his queerness.

“Yes, I do, officially, so everyone, including you, knows you are,” Xuxi chirped, “But I was talking about the part where you were in love with me because I liked that even better.”

Xiaojun’s face burnt but he still wiggled until he was facing Xuxi (as in almost smashing his face into his because 80 cm wasn’t enough bed breadth to do anything but). He grabbed his jaw and closed the small distance between them to kiss him.

They had done it so many times before, but it felt like it was the first time – it was the first time for Xiaojun to kiss his official boyfriend, after all.

“I love you,” Xiaojun whispered, voice shaky and heart racing but, well, this was Xuxi and everything with Xuxi was always comfortable and perfect and the words were nothing but the truth!

Xuxi brushed his hair from his forehead and kissed him again, pushing past the seam of his lips into his mouth to tease all the places he liked until Xiaojun was moaning and clinging to his t-shirt in an effort to ground himself.

“I love you, too, with your smart yet really dense brain,” Xuxi mumbled against his lips and immediately kissed him again as if he was shy to say this.

Xiaojun felt Xuxi’s heart thunder under where he was holding onto his shirt so, maybe, probably, hopefully, Xuxi was actually just as much freaking out over Xiaojun as he was over Xuxi.

Because it just made it even better to know the person you went crazy over and loved like no one else felt the same!

They ended up making out for two hours until Xuxi finally snapped and jacked them off.

Xiaojun, to absolutely no-one’s surprise, fell asleep, half on top of Xuxi because 80 cm just didn’t give you much of a choice.

Not like he would have moved anywhere else if he had.

It was perfect.

Just a lack of things in his ass left something to be desired.

Xuxi may or may not have created a monster, Xiaojun wasn’t sure yet.

Unfortunately, the safety department had turned their request to bring a Bunsen burner down. It really made the whole showing ‘impressive and cool experiments’ part a whole lot harder but they at the very least had a hairdryer, so they could let kids press their hands down on paper, spray it with ninhydrin and let them blowdry it until their hands turned up in purple. They also had alkaline and acid solutions to let red cabbage change from blue to purple, which was also very popular with the visitors below the age of 12.

At least cool enough to permanently be busy. There wasn’t a queue how there was at Hanfu try-on or war-re-enactments, but Xiaojun had feared to just get ditched for food all day. He would have done that and every time a new whiff from the stalls came over, he regretted he couldn’t.

Yuqi and Yangyang came by and let their hands overlap on their paper, which Xuxi cooed over until Yangyang was flushed pink and tried to drag Yuqi away, who just laughed and said she liked he had such good friends.

Kun and Ten, dragging a very grumpy looking Sicheng stuck to his phone as if he was their toddler- or teenage-aged son along, also came by but it was a bad time because they had just been overrun by a class of kids. The missed chance to make a hands-overlapping picture really docked them down a few more points, slowly looking weaker and weaker in comparison to Yangyang and Yuqi.

The visitors were very interesting, too. Between many school and kindergarten groups, who were to be expected, there also were a lot of foreigners and a lot of families. It was great, intercultural understanding was the goal of this, after all, and visitors could learn about the countries these guests came from at the respective stalls or they could visit and remember their home if they wanted to.

It would seem like they wouldn’t have time to check them out themselves, but Xiaojun still loved being part of this and helping people learn beyond what they already know, even if a few indicator reactions were rather little – to the kids who awed with huge eyes, it was something entirely new.

He could also tell them he was a witch before revealing the secret to his ‘magic’, which was absolutely thrilling. Hogwarts could only hope to have him as their student – for which they had missed the chance long ago. Their loss.

During lunch, it let off a bit because whiney kids needed to be fed.

Xiaojun was manning the desk while Xuxi went to get them something to eat because they both had become whiney, too.

Two teenagers with their hoods pulled over their heads and shuffling around aimlessly took an interest in the photos on the front of their table. They were probably too cool to even be here if their clothes were anything to go by (Xiaojun had always thought of himself that way before Guanheng and his fashion-rescue) and likely had been dragged here against their will (like Sicheng), which could be why they hardly even raised their heads.

They might have picked one of the pretty girls out to stare at now. Or boys. Much to Xiaojun’s regret, the department had plastered their faces, names, majors, and ‘achievements’ to the front of the table. As if wearing one of these godforsaken white sticker-nametags wasn’t already humiliating enough. It was about making the uni look good, after all, and showing off with their students was the best advertisement.

The two were talking to each other now, sounding like they were in conflict but Xiaojun didn’t speak Korean so he didn’t even know what over, he instead chopped more cabbage to later impress more five-year-olds with. He had only planned for tarantulas and snakes, but kids didn’t even seem that bad of an acquirement now that he was interacting with some of them.

The two were looking up and down the stall, over to where the physics representatives were trying to hypnotise each other with the pendulum used to demonstrate the effect of earth’s rotation and gravity. Xiaojun wanted to tell them to snap out of it and look professional but one of the guys stepped up and now he had to be professional and talk to strangers without his emotional support boyfriend (!) around.

“Hey, sorry, Huang Xuxi? He’s on this stall?” the guy asked, suddenly speaking Mandarin. He looked familiar but Xiaojun didn’t know from where. His face was slim and his skin looked absolutely flawless as did his brows – was he wearing make-up? The other guy tugged on his arm and said something again but the one who had just asked waved him off.

“Yeah,” oh god, he didn’t do well with beautiful strangers even if he only loved Xuxi, this made him panic. Where had he seen this face before? For some reason, the other guy also looked familiar and he also had bleached hair – which school allowed such scandalous hair-colours?

“Oh. Uh, where is he, if you don’t mind me asking?” he looked around as if to look for Xuxi. Xiaojun tried to think of ways how Xuxi would be connected to this person but none would really make sense. Other than this being a long lost sibling or something – but he was way too tiny to be related to Xuxi.

“I’m not sure, he left to get food. He’ll probably be back soon….-ish. Do you want to conduct an alpha-amino acid, polypeptide, and protein detection reaction?” Xiaojun ditched the cabbage and held up a paper.

“A what?” the pretty guy looked confused and let his eyes skip between the paper and Xiaojun’s face.

“It, uh, it gives you a purple handprint?” Xiaojun tried to sell it better but he felt misunderstood. The other guy was complaining again.

“Uh… sure, yeah, why not. Sorry, my friend is being a pain because we’re not really supposed to be here.” He switched languages and hissed at the other, who pouted and crossed his arms, before turning to smile at Xiaojun, who was still trying to understand how the cool teenagers had not been forced but snuck in here. Nothing made sense. They also didn’t look that young anymore, more his and Xuxi’s age, just their earlier mannerism had made it seem like they were grumpy teens.

“I won’t get into trouble, right? Are you being searched for by the police?” Xiaojun was reluctant to get involved in crime but he could possibly retrieve their fingerprints and help investigations if they pressed their hands onto his paper...

“No, no, oh my god, the worst to happen is our manager finding and scolding us. We’ll both do the reaction thing, okay?”

“Sure.” Manager? What on earth?

Xiaojun decided it wasn’t his business and put two blank papers on the table. The pouty guy got over himself and with a bit of translating, he also pressed his hand down how Xiaojun needed him to. He decided to skip the part where he called the ninhydrin his secret potion.

“So, your name is… Xiao Dejun? You study biology?” the guy asked while Xiaojun finished his part of this task. He sounded really nice, nevermind he was really good at making conversation if he bothered to check Xiaojun’s info on the desk.

“Yeah, I’m in the first semester. Are you… too?” he eyed the two weirdly familiar strangers. Were they in his class and he had forgotten about them? That’d be embarrassing…

“Not really, there’s not much time but I try and broaden my horizon whenever I can.”

It definitely sounded like organised crime but he just didn’t look it. He was way too small and pretty. That was probably the plan, mislead people to strike – bam!

“Maybe you could go to uni in the future, if you want.” Xiaojun handed the blowdryer over the table, “You need to warm the paper and it will show up.” He explained and the other relayed to his Korean friend.

“Yeah, I do feel like I’m missing some parts of life – but I get others. What does one become with a biology degree?”

“I’m not sure. I actually want to do archaeology but my dad wasn’t convinced I’d ever find a job. I still want to change it and try, though.”

“No way, Xuxi was always going off about that stuff, too. Dinosaurs, in particular. You must be friends?”

Xiaojun wrinkled his nose and nodded. He wasn’t confident enough to just announce he was dating a man yet but he internally added it because it felt good.

“That’s great, I lost touch with him but we were friends in primary school, god, so long ago. I never would have expected to stumble into him here! Are you going to see the concert later?” Xiaojun was intrigued to hear such an unlikely connection.

“Really? You don’t have a southern accent, though?”

“I’m not really from the Canton-area but the North. My father’s work had him move to Hong Kong for my fourth year of primary school, right in early summer so I had zero friends. it really sucked and Xuxi helped me so much, so it’s unfortunate we lost contact. If you didn’t win in the lottery, I’m sure I can get you tickets?”

Xiaojun scratched his head, “Honestly, I think volunteers get free access? I’m not really into pop music, let me ask my friend.”

“No! No, it’s okay, I’ll make sure you get ones anyway because you’ll have a better view and we can include a meet and greet.” He checked his watch while his friend turned off the hairdryer and said something.

“Uh, okay? Where do you even get those from?” this raised a million red flags for Xiaojun.

“Oh, I have connections. It was nice to meet you. By the way. I never introduced myself, I usually don’t have to so this was fun, I’m Renjun. I hope to see you later!” he smiled and waved cutely before he and his friend disappeared into the crowd.

Hm.

Renjun.

Wasn’t that a member of NCT Dream?

Must be a coincidence.

“Hey Xiaoxiao, I got us some Mandu from the Korean stall, some Takoyaki from the Japanese, and some Tom Yam Gung soup from the Thai. I already tried a little because the queue were so long, sorry.”

Xiaojun’s stomach rumbled on command and he forgot to ask Xuxi about the mysterious and pretty Renjun.

Until they had cleaned up and packed all their belongings together and Xuxi tried to be subtle in how he grabbed his ass but really wasn’t.

“Guys, are you going to see the concert with us?” Chengxiao asked and Xiaojun suddenly remembered.

“Ah! I totally forgot!” And it looked like so had Renjun because there had been no one with tickets and, well, it might have been a scam after all.

“You wanna go?” Xuxi whispered and lowered himself to put his chin onto Xiaojun’s shoulder, “If you don’t, I’d be extremely interesting in doing some more research on this very fine ass here,” he giggled and Xiaojun batted his hands away, feeling hot.

It’d be so nice to leave and maybe he could suggest Xuxi actually… well, on the other hand, imagine if NCT Dream were to actually perform?

“We should see the concert. We can research after. Oh, and I thought we could go to Wings tomorrow because of the rose theme? Wouldn’t you like that?”

Xuxi placed a tiny and quick kiss to his neck before pulling away.

“I’d love that, see, you have some romance in you!”

So, they wiggled into the staff area reserved in the hall, about a billion miles away from the stage. At least, there were screens so they could see the artists kind of up close.

Xiaojun knew none of them.

A Nongnong introduced himself at some point and Xiaojun believed to recall that was the guy that Guanheng called his ideal type. Well, Guanheng should have not gotten ‘dicked’ but broadened his horizon, but he had missed the chance.

The music was incredibly loud but even louder were the screaming fans. Regardless of future hardness of hearing, it was kind of a good time and atmosphere because everyone seemed very invested and very excited, so Xiaojun just let that infect him and he also used the tightness of the area they were standing in to cling to Xuxi’s biceps.

He knew the other knew because he kept flexing and Xiaojun kept stroking soft fingers over the strong muscle.

Really, it was great and then the sound of Chewing Gum (which even Xiaojun knew) started and Xuxi failed to even scream for a moment only to then be even louder.

Good thing they had come.

Xiaojun saw the familiar faces of the ‘grumpy teenagers’ from earlier on the screen and identified Renjun as actually Renjun.

Xiaojun’s ears were ringing when they were left out and he was kind of riding some high from the screaming and booming music.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Xuxi had been a broken record since the last note had ended and was also clinging onto Xiaojun like he was a lifeline and Xiaojun loved being that for him but also worried now Xuxi had lost it when it had been him just yesterday – they were such a well-oiled couple, even taking turns with mental breakdowns.

“I take it you liked it?” Xiaojun chuckled and guided his delirious boyfriend through the swarms of people, soon losing the physics team because 1.85m of overwhelmed Xuxi were a lot to handle.

“Thank you for saying we should go, urgh, I love you!” Xuxi attacked Xiaojun in a hug and some people behind them complained that they should move on.

“O-okay,” Xiaojun decided to maybe get Xuxi somewhere quiet to help him calm down, “I had an inkling they might be here because some Renjun guy came by our stall.”

“What?” Xuxi breathed and Xiaojun wondered if there was a reason to be jealous?

“Will you leave me for him?” Xiaojun pouted. If the answer was yes, he’d insist they go home, ASAP, so he could show Xuxi there was no one that’d replace him. He had read up on deep throating, Xuxi wouldn’t know what hit him.

“Of course not!” Xuxi gasped and re-tackled Xiaojun in another hug, “Oh my god, no, I love you so much, how could I?”

“Good. Because I love you, too,” Xiaojun mumbled, slightly embarrassed, “We need to get our stuff and go home. I’ll tell you what happened if you can walk on your own.”

“I can walk!” Xuxi announced and straightened up.

It seemed like they were the last people still picking their stuff up and Xiaojun checked his phone, seeing a message from Chengxiao asking if they were fine. He replied to reassure her and then picked up the bag of the ten cabbages that had been sacrificed for science over the day.

“So, where do we take that out?”

“Damn, the others had the plan.” Xuxi scratched his head.

“Can’t be too hard, right? I’m sure we’ll find it. I don’t want to walk through Tianjin with a bag of rubbish,” Xiaojun looked around, but the hallway looked the same both directions.

“Didn’t you get lost in the science building ten times?”

“Forever ago. Come on, this way in the exit, the rubbish will be collected outside for sure, let’s try here,” Xiaojun chirped and went ahead while Xuxi flung the bag with the tools they had to return safely to the chem department over his shoulder.

Something sounded like it broke. They both pretended to not have heard the glass shatter. Xiaojun wasn’t going to whine that his boyfriend was too strong and didn’t know what to do with all his muscle.

They moved down an endless corridor, turned twice, and then there was an exit and even rubbish bins.

“See, told you,” Xiaojun dumped his bag and beamed up at Xuxi.

“I’m sorry I ever doubted you. Now, where are we and how do we get back home?”

Xiaojun rolled his eyes, “We’re outside already, just use maps and we’ll be fine.”

He was about to move past Xuxi but the other grabbed him and pushed him against the wall and leaned down to kiss him and – well, very romantic right next to the rubbish, but Xiaojun was a simple man, give him his boyfriend and any privacy to kiss and he was all game.

However, the moment was short-lived and Xuxi had just opened his mouth to go a little further when the door they had used earlier opened and a small group of people come outside.

Xiaojun barely managed to push Xuxi away, who snapped out of it a bit too late and also still had a hand on Xiaojun’s ass, so the seven boys that had just exited the building all were staring at them wide-eyed and Xiaojun was sure now, more than ever, would be impeccable timing for the ground to open. Please?

Someone said something in Korean and Xiaojun used his height to his advantage and hid behind Xuxi, which was almost as good as the ground opening.

“Oh my god, Xuxi, I thought I wouldn’t get the chance to still see you!”

“Renjun?” Xuxi gasped and Xiaojun glanced past his boyfriend and saw that half the boys were now smirking and seemingly making jokes at Renjun’s expense, who turned redder and redder and unsuccessfully tried to silence them.

“Sorry, my friends are just embarrassing,” Renjun explained – cosmopolitan pink at this point.

“We’re not, we’re just saying the truth, which is that this is not what anyone expected,” one of the boys explained cheerfully, Shanghai’s accent in his voice. Xiaojun was kind of worried to get some homophobic comment, which was an entirely new experience, but none came, no one even looked at them like they were scandalised, it all came back to them making fun of Renjun for reasons deep buried in incomprehensible Korean.

“Shut up, Chenle. Uh, yeah, well, nice to see you again. You, uh, grew?”

“You didn’t,” Xuxi laughed and Xiaojun pinched his waist, making him yelp. Justice for men under 1.70m!

Chenle was translating and everyone broke into laughter, slapping Renjun who managed to make the transition from cosmopolitan to lobster and still look stunning.

“Did you see the concert? I’m sorry, I wanted to sneak out and bring you tickets but our manager was too keen and I couldn’t,” despite Lobster state, he was still talking like an eloquent and sophisticated adult. Must be an idol skill, just like sounding genuinely interested in random chemistry stall-representatives and their majors (Xiaojun hoped he had actually been genuine but he wasn’t very sure that wasn’t just delusion).

“Yeah! Oh my god, it was so good, literally, I’m your biggest fan!” Xuxi boasted, of course he did. While other people became stunned in the presence of celebrities, he just stayed cheerful and non-awkward even if said celebrities had seen him French kiss his boyfriend minutes prior.

“R-really?”

“Of course, Xiaoxiao can be my witness!”

Xiaojun didn’t share any of Xuxi’s confidence and nonchalance in lights of the overall situation, but he managed to swallow and nod, “he talked about you when we first met. Sorry I didn’t recognise you and Jeno even though I’ve watched a lot of your videos and memes.”

More roaring laughter.

“See? I’m spreading the word!” Xuxi puffed his chest.

Suddenly, a phone rang and one of them answered it, looking slightly stressed and replying in a voice like the one Xiaojun had always used when his mum had scolded him.

“Guess this means we have to leave. Sorry,” Renjun smiled.

“Come on, we can take a picture with your childhood best friend, or should we get you a step-stool?” Chenle pushed the confused boy towards Xuxi and held out a hand for a phone to be handed over, and Xiaojun found himself awkwardly standing next to six super-stars who were taking photos of his boyfriend and his bias and it was all very surreal but Xuxi looked happy and Xiaojun was happy for him.

When they were gone, it was suddenly really quiet and Xiaojun looked at the photos and Renjun was really pretty and…

“That was the best, I’m literally on fire, thank you!”

“I didn’t do anything,” Xiaojun muttered.

“Yes, you did, you spoke up for me and you also were the one talking to Renjun, nevermind…” Xuxi’s hand was on his ass again and Xiaojun felt his skin tingle, “They all were very impressed with how cute you are.”

“How do you know?”

“Oh, my Korean isn’t that bad. I didn’t get Jungwoo as my buddy in the exchange student program by chance – so I now know Renjun apparently had some sort of hero-worship-crush going on and was floored by how handsome and buff and tall I became.” Xuxi puffed his chest in his own praise.

“Well, too bad for him you’re taken,” Xiaojun grabbed Xuxi’s shirt and pulled him down for a kiss, which Xuxi seemed very eager to accept.

“Of course, I am and he knows all too well. But I like having my ego stroked.”

“Do you? Do you like it when I tell you how nice and strong your arms are, how your muscles feel like steel under my fingers, how you could have me against the wall without problem? How sexy you look with that piercing and especially when your nipples get flushed and hard when I play with them, suck on them? Or how your fingers are so nice and long, reaching where I can’t and open me up so well? How I love feeling your dick in my mouth, huge and thick, making it hard to even fit, but so hot and sexy?”

Xuxi was speechless, pink on his cheeks and Xiaojun felt kind of embarrassed and unsure where that had come from but also proud to have rendered Xuxi useless for the time being.

After another second, his boyfriend recovered and groaned, leaning down to kiss Xiaojun, trying to sneak his tongue into his mouth but Xiaojun bit his teeth together and didn’t let him.

“We’re on the open street!” he hissed.

“You made me hard, oh my god, Xiaojun, come on. I need to at least kiss you, fuck, that was so hot. Can we go home and fuck, please?”

“I insist on it.”

Xiaojun was very glad there had been no one at the chem department and they just put the tools away in a hurry, hiding the broken flasks in the back of the supply closet.

Next to the broken glass, it would have been hard to explain why Xuxi was sucking marks to the back of his neck and Xiaojun’s hard-on was also kind of difficult to hide and it was just a general mess.

The door to Xuxi’s room wasn’t even shut when Xiaojun already started taking off his t-shirt and jeans and Xuxi crawled on top of him in a similar state of undress, immediately finding his lips to kiss and finally lick into his mouth now that Xiaojun let him.

“Fuck, Xiaojun, I’ve never been this ridiculously turned on, you have to talk dirty to me more,” Xuxi breathed and licked over his neck, moving down his chest to kiss his nipples and take off his underwear.

“Let me practice first?” Xiaojun was sure he’d make both of them go soft if he tried more and he was way too eager to ruin it now.

“Condom! I want to suck you off!” Xuxi demanded and Xiaojun scooted up to his nightstand and dove into the open box, but then his eyes fell on the new bottle of velvet touch lube and he took it and pushed it into Xuxi’s hand instead.

“Counterproposal: sex? All the way?” it was easy to ask, easy because of how clouded his head was and easy because it was Xuxi.

“Fuck, oh god, oh yes, yes, yes,” Xuxi immediately switched gears and Xiaojun laid back down and let his legs fall open for Xuxi to sit between them.

The lube was cherry flavoured because Xuxi had been the one buying it. Welp, cherry flavoured sweets also ruined for life.

Xuxi took a couple of deep breaths and Xiaojun tried to get down from the urgent energy of needing something right now, right here, because they had to prepare and no quick fix would be enough.

“I feel like I should have shaved for the occasion,” Xuxi muttered and Xiaojun sighed happily when he felt his fingers against his perineum and slide down to rub over his rim.

“I like both. I think I even like un-shaved better,” he whispered back and Xuxi smiled and leaned down to kiss him as he pushed two fingers into him. Xiaojun sighed against his lips, opening up to let Xuxi play against his tongue and against the roof of his mouth.

He was already familiar enough that Xuxi had little trouble easing Xiaojun open by wigging the fingers a bit until he could start to move comfortably and stretch him by pushing them in and out, thrusts growing bigger and putting more friction onto his rim how Xiaojun had learnt he liked it and how Xuxi remembered he did.

He pulled away from the sloppy kiss and stared down at Xiaojun who tried to watch Xuxi observe him but couldn’t quite focus especially when he started massaging over his prostate, using just the right amount of pressure to make Xiaojun gasp and moan, struggling to keep his legs open.

“Xuxi, don’t make me cum,” Xiaojun whined, feeling familiar pressure build, and Xuxi smirked down at him.

“Bet you could come twice, anyway.”

“Don’t you dare!” Xiaojun was not going to let him fuck him if he actually came prior. Not a chance!

“Hm. In the future,” Xuxi twisted his fingers and scissored them and Xiaojun gasped and his reply turned into another moan. But he stopped teasing his sweet spot and instead focussed on getting him used to a thicker stretch, first with two fingers, then three, straining on his rim and being so much, so good.

Xiaojun might just want to come even if he had just said he didn’t?

No, he couldn’t! If he came now, he couldn’t fuck and he wanted to, so badly! He looked down to where Xuxi was kneeling, his cock hard and beautiful against his stomach.

He was so hot!

If he’d push into Xiaojun, it’d be deeper than just fingers, thicker, probably less agile and different. He had imagined that quite a few times by now, but it never ceased to be exciting. To get the real thing was even more thrilling. It was hard to stay still, so Xiaojun pulled his left leg up, clenching down on Xuxi’s fingers before managing to relax properly and letting him spread them apart, the lube making it sound wet. It felt so good but he wanted more!

“I’ll add another, Xiaoxiao, just… just to be sure.” Xuxi’s voice was impossibly husky, speaking of how on edge he, too, was and Xiaojun barely managed to reply.

It was a lot but he had already warmed up so much to the feeling, it just spurred him on more, arching off the bed and moaning with every thrust that seemed to run up his entire spine because it was so intense and Xiaojun finally grew too impatient.

“Xu-Xuxi, please, i-it’s fine,” his voice trembled and Xuxi looked up from his ass, eyes dark and gaze seemingly burning him from how intense it was.

“Yeah?”

“Yes,” Xiaojun nodded and Xuxi hummed and pulled his fingers out of him. Xiaojun felt like he was gaping again but it was probably a good thing to do for this cause.

“Fuck,” Xuxi looked like he might come just touching his dick, so Xiaojun didn’t and just threw the condom his way.

Actually, if he considered angles and all, it suddenly sounded like not that good a position if he stayed on his back, flat on the bed. Xiaojun slowly sneaked a hand between his legs, feeling his ass warm and slick and his hole stretched open so much it really hadn’t closed. He pushed two fingers into himself, just to feel how it was. The feeling was indescribable, hot, filthy, but not enough.

Xuxi had finished rolling the condom on and slowly stroked himself, pressing down on the base and collecting himself because Xiaojun had probably not been far off with how on edge he was.

“I want to ride you. I think it’ll feel better,” Xiaojun announced and Xuxi squeezed his eyes shut, groaning.

“Oh fuck, Xiaoxiao, I’ll not even last 10 seconds.”

“Don’t care, you can,” Xiaojun pushed on Xuxi’s torso and the other obeyed and laid down, slowly recovering from Xiaojun’s announcement.

“You’re actually a little demon, don’t you think? I thought that before, I love it!” Xuxi’s grin was a bit strained but it was genuine.

“Maybe?” Xiaojun was quite sure he had turned into some sort of new version of himself, boyfriend, bisexuality, and better understanding of pleasure all changing his perspective a bit.

He considered if being nervous would be appropriate while he squeezed some lube on his hand, but he couldn’t find a reason. Xuxi sighed when he wrapped his slick hand around him and dragged it up and down until it was evenly spread and would hopefully slide easily.

“If it hurts, stop!” Xuxi rasped while Xiaojun crawled on top of him. He hovered over Xuxi’s hips and pushed his wet fingers into his hole, spreading the rest of the lube to add to what was already there. He wasn’t embarrassed to touch himself right under Xuxi’s eyes anymore, on the contrary.

“Yeah,” Xiaojun liked that he would be the one in charge of everything now. He liked handing it over to Xuxi, but in this situation, this first time, it was better to know he could stop anywhere, anytime, without having to wait until Xuxi got what he said, even though Xuxi was great at that.

A bit of anticipation tingled on his skin now, but it mixed with so much excitement, it was easily ignored and Xiaojun reached down to feel Xuxi’s length and position it against his entrance, taking a second to get a feeling for it. It was thick even without having pushed in and just resting against the loose opening. Thick, but not too big. Xiaojun licked his lips imagining how it would stretch his rim and rub just inside, giving him what would make him come untouched.

“If you need a break, tell me, too,” he breathed and glanced down at Xuxi, whose eyes were fixed on where his cock was nudging against Xiaojun. He reached down and cupped his own, pushing it out of the way so Xuxi could see everything.

“Fuck. Fuck, yes,” Xuxi’s voice broke and he was clutching the sheets and Xiaojun was so grateful for his patience and self-control but he didn’t want to tease him anymore. So, he started to sink down, the tip easily slipping past the relaxed ring of muscle and into him, the lube taking any resistance there might have been.

Xuxi’s hands came to grab Xiaojun’s thighs and their moans mixed in the silence of the room. It was so good, so thick but just right, just how Xiaojun liked it, and he let himself drop lower slowly, so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed and could control the motion.

“Oh god, fuck, this is unbelievable,” Xuxi croaked and Xiaojun couldn’t even reply, too taken by how he was opened around the girth and length, that his body managed to accommodate just barely, just on the edge of too much, where it was exactly right.

He needed a second to calm his hurried breathing and his thighs were straining to support him half-way down but he wasn’t in the gym four days a week to fail at such a minor challenge now.

Xuxi rubbed up and down his legs, over his waist, and it helped him relax and take a deep breath, and another, and with exhaling the third, he sunk down lower. Xuxi’s dick was now stretching deeper than his fingers had and it added new sensations, new stimulations to the experience, that Xiaojun hadn’t expected but made it better than imagined.

It was incomparable.

“Xuxi,” he wasn’t even sure why, he just needed to say his name like it’d help make this easier to handle and it did, so Xiaojun repeated it, his voice high-pitched and thin.

“Slow, Xiaoxiao, are you good?”

“It’s so good, fuck, oh god,” Xiaojun realised he had reached his base and was sitting on Xuxi’s hips now, his entire cock inside him, thick and hot and so good, “Oh god.”

“Xuxi is enough,” Xuxi whispered and Xiaojun chuckled but it made him clench down and moan involuntarily because his dick pressed into his walls from the movement.

But he needed that, he wanted that, so, Xiaojun braced himself by putting his hand on Xuxi’s chest, leaning forward a bit, and rolled his hips experimentally, feeling him move inside, “Xiaoxiao, so good.”

It was. It was so good. Xuxi’s dick stretched him and slid in and out so easily, it massaged his rim and Xiaojun rolled his hips more, letting it pull out further so he could push back onto it deeper and Xuxi’s hands settled on his hips and helped him, both of them struggling to properly breathe but unwilling to pause because it was too good, too intense, and their broken moans completed each other.

Xiaojun knew his legs would kill him tomorrow but he didn’t care and used them to properly lift himself up now, and if he bucked his hips up before sinking back down, he could feel Xuxi’s cock brush against that perfect spot, making his dick drip precum.

“Xiaoxiao, I’m sorry, I won’t last,” Xuxi gasped but Xiaojun knew he could cum by just touching his aching dick so he didn’t blame Xuxi. He didn’t yet, he wanted every second he could get, he wanted more on his sweet spot, and he knew how to try and get it.

He leaned back until he had to hold onto Xuxi’s thighs instead of his chest and when he now pushed his hips down, it was that spot, dead-on, so much of Xuxi’s length rubbing over it because his dick was long enough.

“Oh Xuxi, ah, there,” Xiaojun heard himself cry out when he dropped down again and his cock hit right back where he needed it to.

He felt Xuxi rise up under him, giving himself leverage to thrust up into him and Xiaojun legs nearly gave out when he did in a powerful upwards stroke. Xuxi didn’t let him get back on track but picked up the pace, chasing his orgasm and bringing Xiaojun closer and closer by fucking him harder but right where he needed him.

“Xiaoxiao,” Xuxi almost growled and pushed into him one last time, right where Xiaojun needed him. Xiaojun brought his hand on his dick and jerked it in a frenzy. It took just a couple of seconds for it to be enough to make him tighten around Xuxi, who was twitching inside of him in his own high. White cum started dripping over his hand and Xuxi’s stomach while Xiaojun tried to hold his voice in but failed and ended up sounding rather un-sexy but he had no control over anything. He kept clenching down on so much inside him that stimulated all the placed that felt good, drawing his high on and on until it finally broke with a last desperate whine.

As his orgasm ebbed off, his body lost strength and his arms buckled under having to hold his tipped back torso. Xiaojun barely managed to push himself forward and collapse onto Xuxi, who was still gasping for air and groaned when Xiaojun fell onto him. He felt his dick get trapped somewhat uncomfortably and his own cum smeared against his stomach but whatever.

“Good?” Xiaojun whispered, feeling Xuxi’s chest rise and fall below him, comfortable and safe where he was. He wanted to kiss but he couldn’t move.

“Amazing. I love you, so much,” Xuxi whispered and pulled him up to help with the kisses Xiaojun was missing.

“Hm, same.”

“Hey, no falling asleep, we both need a shower but you need one in particular.”

“I can’t walk. I don’t think I’ll be able to walk all week.” His ass as already starting to throb even though he wasn’t doing anything other than breathing, “Or sit.”

“Aw, I’ll carry you.”

“Mhm. You should.”

Xiaojun hadn’t expected Xuxi to take him that seriously.

Then again, he did appreciate being carried to his dorm the next morning instead of having to walk. If he had thought he had been sore last time, it had been nothing against today. He was really working some muscles on his legs here. A few more nights of this and he’d have it built up so he would no longer have to be a bundle of whining in the morning, probably, but, for now, he snuggled against Xuxi’s shoulders.

He had denied the princess-style-suggestion.

“We should re-plan out café date.”

“But it’s rose-themed! We can go in the afternoon when we both finished 30% of homework?” Xiaojun felt upset by the idea of Xuxi missing his favourite plants.

“Let’s see how you’ll feel by then?”

Xiaojun hummed and smiled because, damn, Xuxi really was the perfect boyfriend, wasn’t he?

Guanheng looked up from where he had been watching something on his tablet when the door opened and Xuxi carefully let Xiaojun down on his bed, where he spread out like a starfish to recover from moving – even though it had been passive moving.

“I hate you two so much! I want a boyfriend who carries me around like I’m a freaking porcelain doll after being fucked into next week, too, god, I’m so jealous!”

Xiaojun’s face flushed and he stared at the ceiling.

“Well, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t even leave Xiaoxiao for Huang Renjun. I love him too much!” Xuxi sounded cheerful while Xiaojun’s face burnt and Guanheng made dying whale-noises.

Really, he had hit jackpot with his roomie, who had even made this trip of self-discovery possible and have brought these wonderful people into his life, including his boyfriend.

It could have been a slightly quicker road to this point, the point of calling him his boyfriend proudly at least in his head, but he was here now, he was happy, even though he was sore because they had ‘made love’, he would repeat everything a million times over.

“I love him, too, he’s not up for grabs.”

“Ew, happy couples, I hate them.”

“We’ll find you your true love, I’m sure of it. Oh, by the way, I grabbed one of the signed Nongnong posters from the backstage area we got lost in for you, to replace the one Meiqi ripped.”

“Oh my god, you what?”

“We weren’t lost!” Xiaojun argued but went unheard while Guanheng announced he loved Xuxi more than Xiaojun ever could, and he chuckled to himself.

Really, university would hardly get any better, would it? Adulting was going well, he had made friends, and he had found a boyfriend.

Now he only had to introduce this boyfriend to his parents, brother, and, most importantly, Cinderella.

He hoped they could get along well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaah, it's over ;;;  
I had so much fun writing this, that's why it ended up becoming pretty long (it was supposed to be a One Shot lol now it's one of my longest fics) Thank you so much to everyone who stuck around and beared with me (and XJ's dense ass) <333

**Author's Note:**

> [CC](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)
> 
> Twitter: @155Fox


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